Game 38: White Sox at Twins

First Pitch: 7:10 pm Central
Television: FOX Sports North;
Radio (English): WCCO 830 AM, Treasure Island Baseball Network, KMBN 102.9 FM “The Wolf”
Radio (Spanish): twinsbeisbol.com
Know Thine Enemy: South Side Sox

Is anyone else still not used to night games as series finales? Weird stuff.

At any rate, we’ll all be treated to Jose Berrios taking on Reynaldo Lopez. But the headliner here is the return of Josh Donaldson, who last played on July 31.

Only a night after Byron Buxton and Michael Pineda were something like 90 percent of the reason the Twins beat the White Sox by a 3-2 score (that’s definitely a scientific calculation, by the way), Donaldson will be asked to single-handedly carry the Twins to a series win.

But, back to the pitching matchup. You may recall that Berrios was awesome two starts ago, giving up one hit and zero runs over six innings against Milwaukee. But last time out, his command was nowhere to be found as the Royals scored four earned runs in four innings and Berrios walked four batters.

The Twins knocked Lopez around on opening weekend, scoring four runs in just two-thirds of an inning. After a several-week stint on the injured list, Lopez came back to pitch competitively against the Cubs and the Royals, although he still hasn’t pitched beyond the fourth inning in three tries this season.

The Twins have a chance to win the series and go up 4-2 in the season series against the White Sox, who are currently tied with Cleveland in first place and 1.5 games ahead of Minnesota. While it isn’t a “must win”, it is important.

So here’s to Donaldson’s return, another promising start from Berrios, and the start of a stretch of “hey, don’t forget about us!” baseball from your Minnesota Twins.