First Pitch: 3:10 pm CDT

TV: Bally Sports North

Radio: WCCO 830 / The Wolf 102.9 FM / TIBN / Audacy

If you want your summers to fly by, watch some baseball. Even in a year like this, where disappointing and sometimes soul-crushing losses have become frustratingly inevitable, it’s not as though the team’s underperformance has made the days drag by. On the contrary, I bet you didn’t realize the season was officially halfway over until right now — even with the trade deadline looming and only two months of regular season baseball on the other side of it.

And speaking of flying, today’s starter is that Air Force dude, Griffin Jax. It’s the first major-league start for Griffin, who’s been used as an innings-eating relief arm since debuting in early June. It has the look of a bullpen game, but Jax may be expected to go as deep as he can; the Twins used four relievers in last night’s loss, and both Hansel Robles and Derek Law threw 30+ pitches on Thursday. Thielbar and Duffey are probably the most available reserve arms today.

Royal lefty Danny Duffy is continuing his quietly solid career by putting up some of his best numbers in years; It wasn’t until last time out against Boston that his season ERA jumped above 2.00. He was on the IL for a few weeks and is being gingerly ushered back into the swing of things — a prime candidate to jump on early this afternoon.

Most of the usual suspects out there today in the lineup... FOR NOW.

GO TWINS GO!