Series Preview: Twins will attempt to salvage road trip against Yankees

Another day, another AL East match up for the Twins. This time they’ll be playing the Yankees. Most people would tell you that the Yankees are better than the Rays, which isn’t ideal seeing as the Twins just dropped their first series of the year to Tampa last weekend. The Yankees are somehow in third place in the AL East, at 11-9. Meanwhile, the Twins will be coming at 8-8, but in second place in the AL-Central; after straight three losses.

The Twins will be sending out their top four starting pitchers for the series, led by Opening Day starter Jake Odorizzi. As a career AL East pitcher, Odorizzi has faced the Yankees quite a few times, and he’s also been pretty good against them. He has held the Bronx Bombers to .215/.270/.385, and only six homers in 130 at bats. Greg Bird has two of those home runs, but he won’t be playing due to injury. Odorizzi will face off Masahiro Tanaka for the Yanks. The Twins have a bit of experience against him, and Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar both have very good averages. Logan Morrison has a home run against Tanaka as well.

Jose Berrios is the second starter for the Twins, coming off a very nice performance in Puerto Rico. The last time he faced the Yankees was in relief of Ervin Santana in the 2017 AL wild card game. Brett Gardner is the only Yankee with an RBI off Berrios, but he has three of them. Facing Berrios will be noted large human CC Sabathia. Joe Mauer has struck out against Sabathia 17 times, which is more than the number of at-bats any other Twin has faced Sabathia. Max Kepler and Miguel Sano have both lauched a dinger off the Bartolo-esque pitcher.

Lance Lynn starts game three, and frankly, there are some worrisome numbers. The only Yankees he has faced a statistically significant number of times are Giancarlo Stanton and Neil Walker. Stanton is at .294/.368./.471 with a home run against Lynn, and Walker makes that look bad. The infielder is hitting .375/.445/.800 with three dong knocks and nine total extra base hits in 40 at-bats against Lynn. Sonny Gray will be on the bump for New York, and Gray has fared fairly well against the Twins. The highlight against him is that both Dozier and Jason Castro are 4-for-11 and Dozier has two home runs. Castro and Sano each have a dong of their own as well.

Kyle Gibson will be the last starter the Twins send out against the Yankees. He hasn’t been exposed to their lineup much, but has held his own against them, giving up nine hits and three earned runs in 35 at-bats. He faces Jordan Montgomery, who the Twins haven’t seen much of, but have scored four runs against in 20 at-bats. Most of those came from a 3-run blast by Sano.

Pitching Match-ups

Game 1: Monday, April 23rd; 6:00 pm CT — Jake Odorizzi RHP vs. Masahiro Tanaka RHP

Game 2: Tuesday, April 24th; 5:10 pm CT — Jose Berrios RHP vs. CC Sabathia LHP

Game 3: Wednesday, April 25th; 5:10 pm CT — Lance Lynn RHP vs. Sonny Gray RHP

Game 4: Thursday, April 26th; 12:20 pm CT — Kyle Gibson RHP vs. Jordan Montgomery LHP

Notes

• Game one is on ESPN. I wonder if they’ll say the Yankees should bunt, too.
• No Bert Blyleven for this series. Roy Smalley will be taking over the color analyst role for FSN
• The Yankees have quite a few players on the disabled list, including notables Greg Bird, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clint Frazier, and Tommy Kahnle