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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
Maybe, just maybe, tonight will be the night.
What night, you ask? The night of the clinching, of course. (Not to be confused with the Night of the Clenching, which will in fact be every night with a postseason game involving the Minnesota Twins.)
With the way things have been going, of course, there is more likely to be more chiseling rather than clinching, as the last week has seen the Twins shave a single game off their magic number nearly every day. For some reason, the Twins can’t seem to win on the same day that Cleveland loses, so here we are.
The magic number is two, and if the Twins win tonight and the White Sox-Indians game remains close, you better believe that I’ll have the TV tuned to MLB Network to see what feels like the 100th team clinch a playoff spot on their air.
All that to say, the Twins need to their part and win tonight, or else we could be stuck with a lame getaway day celebration on Thursday before the team flies to Kansas City. Let’s just say that a celebration tonight and a hungover matinee tomorrow with the 29th through 37th guys on the roster all in the starting lineup sounds great right about now.
To do their part this evening, the Twins will once again rely on Randy Dobnak in his final start as an unwed man. (Seriously.)
Randy D.’s number so far this year with the Twins: 1-1, 2.01 ERA, 17 K and 5 BB in 22 1⁄3 innings. After essentially being used as an opener early on, Dobnak threw 5 innings of one-run ball in Cleveland two outings ago and followed it up with 5 1⁄3 innings of one-run ball against the Royals last time around. He’ll look to continue his assault on the bats of the A.L. Central on Wednesday in Detroit.
Dobnak’s mound opponent will be Daniel Norris, who owns a 3-13 record and a 4.58 ERA. He’s only thrown three innings in each of his last eight starts dating back to early August as the Tigers look to manage his work load.
Okay, let’s do this. It’s clenching clinching time.