Game 132: Chicago White Sox @ Minnesota Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 PM. Vegas odds: -220 MIN / CHW +200

Weather: Slight Chance Of Early Rain, Start Temp 75°

TV: FSN. Radio: I Once Heard Mark Rosen Do An Epic Radio Rant About How Much He Hates The State Fair (It Was Early On A Sunday, Maybe He Was Tired)

Opponent's SB site: South Side Sox

As you'd expect, MLB has been contributing to flood relief in the Houston area. Teams are auctioning off game-used souvenirs; here's the Twins' auction page. (It's cleats, and surprise surprise, people are bidding more for Byron Buxton's running shoes than Miguel Sano's.) Players with personal ties to the region are doing things like pledging money for each home run they hit. In a very nice touch, Tropicana Field (home of the Rays) will be hosting Astros games for a few days, and donating every dollar of ticket sales & concessions to relief efforts. Way to go, Rays.

My favorite flood relief tale isn't a baseball one, though. It's the hospitality of Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. Apparently, this guy, who runs several mattress/furniture stores in Houston, is something of a local celebrity, due to his zany promotional campaigns and eccentric life story. Well, he's letting families shelter in his stores and sleep on the mattresses. You can see photos here.

It's not exactly heroism (it's also good business, as families soon needing to replace water-damaged furniture will probably think kindly of the Mattress Mack), yet it's a decent thing to do all the same. Plus I have a soft spot for local mini-moguls who insist on running the goofiest commercials imaginable. Feast your eyes on this return of the Mack:

The only thing that could make this ad better is if it was a Twin Cities-based business, and Kent Hrbek was among the performers.

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Derek Holland starts for the ChiSox today, and he's having a pretty bad season. He throws the usual four pitches, but his control and velocity are down pretty hard from his Texas years, which makes his offspeed stuff much more hittable. However, it's mostly right-handed batters who tee off on him, and the Twins are short on those right now. Digits:

I don't know why FIP dislikes Jose Berrios so much; his BAbip is around normal, his K/BB ratio good. Maybe somebody at BRef sees what we all do -- that when Berrios has problems locating his fastball, he gets into major trouble -- and fudged the FIP just because they can. I'm unaware of how these stats things work.