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First Pitch: 5:40p Central
Telly: FOX Sports North; fubo.tv (subscription)
Radio (English): WCCO 830 AM, Treasure Island Baseball Network
Radio (Spanish): twinsbeisbol.com
Know Thine Enemy: Bless You Boys
“It’s the last Tuesday game of the regular season.” You’ll probably hear that from the TV and radio crews over and over again throughout this next week, replacing “Tuesday” with “Wednesday” and “Thursday” and, well... you get the point. Stick meet deceased horse. It’s just a constant reminder that the best months of the year are about to sunset into a deep winter freeze. I’ll be relegated to listening to vinyl, reading smutty western country books, catching up with shows on the Netflix and Hulu, and staring at my hamster that still hates me. Oh, and whiskey. Heck, maybe I’ll listen to the Wild and the Vikings. I’m just hoping I get to do that after the Minnesota Twins win the World Series.
Speaking of, the Twins’ magic number is three! The Cleveland Spiders play the Chicago White Sox tonight, and the White Sox have given the Spiders some trouble, so maybe - just maybe - the magic number can be whittled down to one tonight with a Twins win and a Spiders loss. Knowing how my week has been so far, probably not.
The Twins are visiting Ron Gardenhire’s Detroit Tigers for a three-game set. He’s going to return in 2020 as the skipper for Detroit, but Gardy is more concerned about his coaching staff, which includes former Twins coaches Rick Anderson, Steve Liddle, and Joe Vavra. The Tigers started letting go some of their minor league staff early last week, and former Twins player Doug Mientkiewicz might also be on the hot seat as their AAA manager. Gardy is sending out Spencer Turnbull to start tonight. He faced the Twins back on September 1, going 4.2 innings and allowing six earned runs on the way to an 8-3 Twins victory. He’s allowed four or more earned runs in five of his last six outings and hitters beware: he leads the American League in hitting batters.
Rocco Baldelli will counter with Jake Odorizzi on the mound. He faced this Detroit club on September 2 in a 4-3 tWIMs, going five innings and allowing three earned runs and striking out seven. In a tattered starting rotation, Odo has held his own, posting a 3.25 ERA over the past eight starts, striking out 58 batters, issuing 15 walks, and only allowing two homers.
GO TWIMS GO