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First Pitch: 7:10 CT
TV: Fox Sports North
Radio: WCCO/Treasure Island Baseball Network
Know Thine Enemy: Crawfish Boxes
The Astros come into the series having won 11 of their past 14 games, though they did just drop two of three to the Texas Rangers. Houston’s pitching staff has been their biggest weapon to this point in the season, as they are allowing just 3.71 runs per game. Their bullpen has been stellar this year, posting a 2.47 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a .181 average.
On the mound for the Astros tonight will be Brad Peacock, who has gone back to the starting rotation after pitching effectively last year out of the bullpen and throwing in relief in his last two outings. Peacock has been fairly effective this season with a 3.94 ERA and 0.813 WHIP. It’s likely that he won’t pitch past five innings based on his current swingman role.
His mound opponent will be Jake Odorizzi, who had been inconsistent to say the least. Odorizzi has pitched well in most of his innings on the bump, but has suffered from a few disastrous frames. To this point in the season, the former Rays pitcher has allowed all but one of his runs either in the first or fifth inning of games. Encouraging signs include his stirkeout rate and opponent batting average. Odorizzi has posted a 11.1 K/9 in 2019 and has held the opposition to a .172 batting average.
Only one Twins has compiled double-digit at-bats against Peacock. C.J. Cron has faced the righty 10 times, going 1-10 with five strikeouts. Nelson Cruz has three hits in nine at-bats, while Max Kepler has had the most success, going 2-3 with a home run and double against Peacock.
As I stated in the previous game thread that I posted, I’m a bit of a nerd and enjoy all of the numbers surrounding the game of baseball, so one of my favorite things to look at during the game is the Statcast Gamefeed provided by Baseball Savant. It gives you exit velocities and the expected batting averages for each ball hit in play, among other cool metrics. Check out the feed for tonight’s game here!