Series Preview: Twins host the Brewers in annual border battle

This weekend is time for the Twins’ first installment against our assigned “inter-league rival,” the Milwaukee Brewers. Due to the fact that we play the rivalry series against them, and they are a former AL team, the Twins and Brewers have actually faced off every year since 1970. Although Minnesota edges the Brewers by just a few games in the all-time record among the two teams, they have been more fairly matched in recent years. 2017 was one exception to that, though, as the Twins swept all four games against Milwaukee.

This season’s version of the Brew Crew has been pretty good, and are currently (as of time-of-writing, the Pirates played on Thursday night) a half-game up at top of the NL Central. Milwaukee has accomplished their success despite hitting .241/.308/.389 as a team and being 23rd in runs scored. Their pitching has been good enough to make up for the hitting, with a 3.50 staff ERA and ranking eighth best at limiting runs.

That the Brewer’s pitching has been their strength is especially odd, given the offseason hawt taykes on the team. They spent a lot of resources loading up on position players, but were thought to have a very shaky pitching staff. Their hitting acquisitions included trading with the Miami Marlins to acquire Christian Yelich and signing former Royal Lorenzo Cain.

The Twins have played pretty well against NL Central teams this year. They are 5-4 overall in interleague play. The woeful Reds came to town during the depths of the Twins slump, or we would probably be able to claim a few more wins.

The Twins will start the series with Kyle Gibson pitching. Gibby is coming off a quality start against the Angels, in which he pitched six innings and only gave up two runs. His ERA this season is 3.43, and he has been remarkably consistent so far. He’s faced the Brewers a few times, but almost half of those at bats belong to Lorenzo Cain. Here is the full run-down, courtesy, as usual, of baseball-reference.com.

Left handed Brent Suter starts the first game for the Brewers. He went to Harvard. His ERA this season is 5.14, so hopefully the Twins can get to him. He also throws exactly five innings more often than not, so expect to face Milwaukee’s bullpen as well. The Twins haven’t seen Suter much, but here is the rundown.

The second game is scheduled to be another match up of electric rookies. Fernando Romero went toe-to-toe with Shohei Ohtani in his last start, and acquitted himself well though he did not get the win. Romero gave up his first major league run in that game, and pitched five full innings. He’s never faced the Brewers, but hopefully can continue to shine.

The rookie pitcher for the Brewers is Freddy Peralta. Peralta has only started one major league game, but he shut out the Rockies over 5.2 innings in that start. This will be a very interesting pitching duel, in my opinion.

The Twins turn to Jake Odorizzi in the final game of the series. Odorizzi twirled a gem against the Mariners in his last start, not giving up a run in six innings. Unfortunately, Trevor Hildenberger gave up a run, and the Twins couldn’t answer. Odorizzi has been a great acquisition for the Twins this year, with a 3.35 ERA. He hasn’t faced the Brewers very often, but has been very good in small samples. Full stats are below.

Junior Guerra takes the mound for Milwaukee against Odorizzi. He has a sparkly 3.08 ERA for 2018, and has only given up three home runs all season. Brian Dozier hit one the only time he has ever faced Guerra, can Dozier make it four this year for the Brewers’ de facto ace? Here are the stats for the two times Twins batters have appeared against Guerra.

Pitching Match-Ups

Game 1: Friday, May 18th; 7:10 pm CDT — Kyle Gibson RHP vs. Brent Suter LHP

Game 2: Saturday, May 19th; 6:10 pm CDT — Fernando Romero RHP vs. Freddy Peralta RHP

Game 3: Sunday, May 20th; 1:10 pm CDT — Jake Odorizzi RHP vs. Junior Guerra RHP