Series Preview: Twins look to beat up Tigers again just for fun

This weekend the Twins are taking on the Tigers at Target Field in a three-game series—and it’s basically meaningless.

In case you’re living under a rock, the Twins clinched a wild card spot late Wednesday night when the White Sox beat the Angels. They’re officially in the playoffs. They did the whole champagne/beer/goggles thing, even though they may only get to play one playoff game.

Since the Yankees are now 89-70 and the Twins are 83-76, that one playoff game will be in New York. Even if the Twins swept the Tigers, there’s no way for them to get home field advantage for the wild card game. Hence, this weekend’s series against the Tigers being basically meaningless.

But it’s not totally meaningless. I mean, we watch baseball to be entertained, right? There should be plenty of entertaining things in this series:

• The Tigers suck and the Twins are probably going to beat the crap out of them like they did last weekend in Detroit. That’s always fun to watch.
• Tigers manager Brad Ausmus—who’s already been told he’s getting fired after the season ends—is going full “F-it” and said he’s going to let Andrew Romine play all nine positions in Sunday’s game.
• Sunday’s game may also very well be the final game of Bartolo Colon’s career.
• Miguel Sano could return (he’s meeting with doctors today, per Darren Wolfson).
• We’ll probably get to see the young guys like Mitch Garver and Niko Goodrum more.
• It’s fan appreciation weekend! Everyone who goes to a game gets a free hat, and the team also gives out random food items to various groups of fans throughout the game. It’s like the Hormel Row of Fame, except without the supremely awesome song.

Speaking of that Sunday game, it’s going to be at 2:10 pm CT because MLB is doing that dumb thing where all the games on the final day start at the same time. I guess it’s supposed to make close playoff races dramatic, but I think it’s just dumb. Now I can’t spend all day watching live baseball, you goobers.

As mentioned, Bartolo Colon will probably start Sunday for the Twins. He only lasted 1.0 inning in his last outing against the Indians, because he claimed to be sick. Food poisoning? That’s what I’d guess. Assuming Colon is better by Sunday, he’ll be facing Anibal Sanchez. The last time the Twins faced Sanchez was on August 11th, and he gave up five runs, including two dingers to Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler.

On Saturday, Jose Berrios is probably going to be pitching Aaron Slegers will start against Buck Farmer. The Twins scored five runs off Farmer in his start against them last Sunday. He has 7.33 ERA this year. He’s not good.

Tonight, Friday, Kyle Gibson will face Matthew Boyd. Believe it or not, Boyd actually did well in his last start against the Twins, giving up only one earned run (and one unearned) over 6.2 innings. Unfortunately, after Boyd was removed from the game, the Tigers bullpen game in, and folks, they are not good (I’m sensing a theme here). They gave up eight runs to the eighth inning, and the Twins won 10-4.

So even though the Twins don’t need a sweep this weekend, they’re probably going to get a sweep. Just for funsies.

Pitching Match-ups

Game 1: Friday, September 29th, 2017; 7:10 pm CT — Kyle Gibson RHP vs. Matthew Boyd LHP

Game 2: Saturday, September 30th, 2017; 6:10 pm CT — Jose Berrios RHP Aaron Slegers RHP vs. Buck Farmer RHP

Game 3: Sunday, October 1st, 2017; 2:10 pm CT — Bartolo Colon RHP vs. Anibal Sanchez RHP

UPDATE [4:23 pm CT]:

Looks like Slegers will be starting Saturday: