Series Preview: Twins host Indians in a big, huge, honking series

Ok, you know all those other times I said it “might be the most important series of the year?” Forget those. This one is bigger. The Twins can walk away two games out of first, or eight. If they want to hold onto hope for the playoffs, they must win this series.

Since the last time we saw Cleveland, the Twins were buyers, then sellers, now they’re buyers again (maybe)? But we haven’t bought anything yet. Who even freaking knows. What I do know is that we are on another hot streak. The Twins have won eight of their last ten games and haven’t lost a series in the month of August. Meanwhile the Indians have won their last four games, and six of their last ten.

To say the least, this should be an interesting series.

The Twins are starting Bartolo Colon for the first game. His ERA is 2.25 in August. If you play for the Indians and aren’t named Michael Brantley or Jason Kipnis, you haven’t hit him very well. Strangely, Jay Bruce has two hits in eight at-bats against Big Sexy, and both are home runs. Carlos Santana has one hit in eight at-bats, and that’s also a home run. Pitching for the tribe is Danny Salazar. “Salad Bar” has a 3.35 home ERA, and 4.85 road ERA. This game is in Target Field, so bodes well. Brian Dozier, Joe Mauer, and Max Kepler have hit well against him. Basically all of the hot Twins hitters.

Game two pits Kyle Gibson against Carlos Carrasco. Gibson is probably going to pitch about 5.1 innings and give up 3 runs on like 12 hits. Unless he implodes. He has given up dongs to the Indians in about 5% of at-bats. Carrasco has been tagged with a 5.87 ERA for August. He is worse than Gibby this month, by that measure. Brian Dozier has three stroked dongs off him.

Twins “ace” Ervin Santana has game three, and has held the Indians to .121/.177/.241 in his career. For the Indians, Jay from Jay and Silent Bob Mike Clevinger takes the mound. The Twins have seen him a couple times now, but only Dozier, Mauer, and Miguel Sano have really done much. Sano and Dozier do have home runs though.

With any luck, the Twins will be a lot closer to first place when they see the Diamondbacks this weekend. In the meantime, we can laugh at the Cavaliers and their figurative river fire of an off season.

Pitching Matchups

Game 1 Tuesday, August 15; 7:10 pm CT — Bartolo Colon RHP vs. Danny Salazar RHP

Game 2 Wednesday, August 16; 7:10 pm CT — Kyle Gibson RHP vs Carlos Carrasco RHP

Game 3 Thursday, August 17; 12:10 pm CT — Ervin Santana RHP vs Mike Clevinger RHP

Notes

• After pitching for the Lookouts yesterday, Glen Perkins reportedly flew back to the Twin Cities, meaning he could potentially pitch in this series.
• According to LEN3, the Twins are expecting 30,000 fans at each game this week.