Game 125: White Sox at Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 pm CT

TV: Fox Sports North

Radio: WCCO/Tresure Island Baseball Network

Know Thine Enemy: South Side Sox

The Twins open up a six game homestand with a three-game set against the Chicago White Sox tonight, which will be followed by another three-game series against the Detroit Tigers. In fact, the Twins will face just those two teams for the next two weeks, so it will be a chance for the hometown nine to pile up some wins. Ideally, if this Twins season were a sports movie, this would be the part where it would cut to a song like “Takin’ Care of Business”. That would go along with a montage of the Twins ripping a bunch of hits and a lot of lopsided scoreboards would flash up during the song before the climax of the film. Hopefully the Twins can gain some ground over the Indians over this 12-game stretch and avoid too big of a climax prior to the postseason.

Kyle Gibson will take the bump tonight for the Twins, hoping to get back on track. Gibby has been much better against .500 or lower teams, with an ERA of 3.51 and a WHIP of 1.06. Those numbers rise to 5.28 and 1.65 against teams with a .500+ record. Facing Gibson will be Ivan Nova, who is having a pretty mediocre year with a 4.51 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. Four Twins have had double digit at-bats against Nova, including Jason Castor (.864 OPS), Nelson Cruz (1.103 OPS), Marwin Gonzalez (.909 OPS), and Jonathan Schoop (1.111 OPS, not in the lineup). Unfortunately for the Twins, Nova has been red-hot lately, giving up just two runs in his last 37 innings.

Check out the Baseball Savant Preview for the game and the gamefeed (including exit velo, hit percentages and more)!