Game 145: Nationals at Twins

First Pitch: 6:40p Central
Television: FOX Sports North; fubo.tv (subscription)
Radio (English): WCCO 830 AM, Treasure Island Baseball Network
Know Thine Enemy: Federal Baseball

After the Washington Nationals deprived the Twins faithful of an opportunity to welcome back their lost son, Brian Dozier is in the lineup against lefty Martin Perez on Wednesday evening.

How we loved ye, Doz. Please don’t take out your anger at being traded to the World Series-losing Dodgers last year on us. Just have a nice 1-for-4 night with a standing ovation and no homers or runs scored or anything crazy.

Dozier will be manning second base behind Stephen Strasburg. While he isn’t quite what we all thought he might be 10 years ago (stupid injuries), he’s still a mighty fine pitcher.

Strasburg gave up three earned runs in six innings in a loss at Atlanta time out, but just prior to that he shut-out the Miami Marlins in eight innings of two-hit ball. On the season, Stras has sparkling 16-6 mark with a tidy 3.50 ERA.

As mentioned, he’ll face off against the once again (hopefully? maybe?) resurgent Martin Perez. While his season ERA is still sitting at 4.75, he pitched six innings of one-run ball against Boston last week.

Coming off a 5-0 shutout of the Nationals on Tuesday, the bruised and battered Twins will have their work cut out for them in this one.