First Pitch: 9:10 pm CDT

TV: Bally Sports North / ~ / Radio: TIBN

Hey, you. You’re finally awake. Or, I suppose, you’re still awake — that’s right, it’s another edition of Twinkie Town Dot Com After Dark, brought to you buy the lovely folks at Chase. Welcome to the party.

The MC of tonight’s festivities is none other than Dylan Bundy, who may actually just be Matt Shoemaker reincarnated — although, I don’t think Bundy will go bad-mouthing the organization for trying to change his mechanics. (As we know, Shoemaker’s “I’ll do it myself” mechanics produced a dazzling 8.06 ERA in 60.1 innings.)

Bundy’s not quite there yet, although it’s not looking good. A 5.07 FIP has been on the climb, with the 29-year-old right-hander having given up four homers in his last six-and-a-third innings pitched. After winning his first three starts, Minnesota has lost the last seven games in which Bundy has appeared. Yikes!

While those seven games haven’t come in a row, they have helped peck away at the Central Division lead, an advantage which hasn’t been “comfortable” per se, but certainly hasn’t been quite as close as it is right now in a minute:

The pesky Guardians have streaked their way to some separation from Chicago; meanwhile, the Royals are looking to leapfrog the free-falling Tigers, who are turning in yet another disappointing season as their rebuild continues to drag.

And speaking of drag and other aerodynamics - back to pitching!

The Twins lineup will be squaring off against Luke Weaver, a seven-year National League veteran who has never faced Minnesota. Despite good spin and an above-average chase rate, Weaver has a hard time not getting hit for solid contact, and most of his Baseball Savant peripherals are in that “Mr. Freeze” zone.

I would say that the Twins might jump on him early, en route to a solid win, but that looked to be the case yesterday, as well; hard contact off Madison Bumgarner merely precluded a pitching implosion and an easy win for Arizona.

Let’s make it more difficult tonight!