First Pitch: 2:15 CDT
TV: FSNO, MLBN (out of market)
Radio: WCCO, The Wolf, TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: VEB
Today’s doubleheader decides who is the best team on the Mississippi river, at least for the next couple years. If the Twins win one game, they’ll pick up the season series. If not, it will be a tie, as the Twins took the first two games back in July. Of course, since then, the Cardinals had a long layoff, and lost a legend.
Hall of Fame outfielder Lou Brock was a major contributor for the Cardinals in the 60’s and 70’s, and was part of several NL Pennant winning teams. He also is a member of the 3,000 hit club, and set several MLB records during his career. Later in life, Brock became a spokesperson for various health-related causes, most notably diabetes. His impact on baseball in Saint Louis is probably most comparable to someone like Rod Carew or Tony Oliva in Twins Territory. He was 81 when he passed away on Sunday.
On the diamond, its been an interesting year for the Cards. After their last series with the Twins, they saw a COVID-19 outbreak postpone a number of games, and therefore come into the series with a 17-16 record, while the Twins are at 26-17. What was originally scheduled as games today and tomorrow were compressed into a doubleheader today in order to give the Cards a day off as they play a number of doubleheaders to make up the missed games. For the Twins, this means they have two consecutive days off, tomorrow and Thursday, before returning to action on Friday. The most notable consequence here is that Randy Dobnak starts game two on short rest. Given his tendencies anyway, with two days off expect to see Rocco Baldelli call the bullpen early and often in both games.
For game one, expect to see Jose Berrios start for the Twins. John wrote a very nice article about Berrios today. That worked out so well when he did so about Randy Dobnak (nojinxnojinxnojinx.) Still, that post gives you a much better idea of what to expect and look for from Berrios than anything I could write.
Carlos Martinez starts for the Cardinals. He last pitched on July 28th, in a game he lost to the Twins. He missed some significant time as one of the St. Louis players to come up positive for COVID-19. The Twins rocked him to the tune of six runs on seven hits, in less than four innings during that appearance.
Remember, double headers are seven inning games this year!