Game 118: Rangers at Twins

FIRST PITCH: 610p Central
TELEVISION: Bally Sports North, none of that steaming bullcrap
RADIO: ‘CCO 830 AM, KMNB 102.9 FM “The Wolf”, Treasure Island Baseball Network
KNOW THE FOE: Lone Star Ball

Three former Minnesota Twins icons will go into the Twins Territory immortality this weekend. Kamie has a great rundown of the weekend activities, info on this year’s inductees, and the current roster of Hall of Famers! Tonight, former manager Ron “FIRE GARY” Gardenhire gets inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame.

I don’t remember when I really settled into paying attention to the Twins, but Ron Gardenhire was at the helm of the ship. It was the good ol’ days of Dick-n-Bert on FOX Sports North; Carneal, Gordon, Gladden, and sometimes Jack Morris would be on ‘CCO AM (and then move over to KSTP 1500 AM for a while, if I remember right). It was the age of the Piranhas, the Twins were stutter-stepping between contenders and non-contenders almost every other year, and Gardy seemed to always get tossed out of games by an ump.

One of the things that always sticks with me are those times when Gardy got the heave-ho. He was one of the last managers to get very heated with umpires, one of the last “old-school” managers in the majors, and the day he retired was the sunset on those guys that would go out and stick up for the local nine in the most heated fashion possible. Here’s a YouTube video of Gardy ejections for your enjoyment. Yes, it is over 45 minutes long.

Thank you for being a great manager in the earliest memorable years of my Twins fandom, Gardy. A well-deserved addition to the Twins Hall of Fame!

The Twins look to extend their winning streak to five in a row for the first time since May 23, when they made it six in a row before losing. They’ve gone seven in a row in late April, but one step at a time here, folks. Minnesota sits one game back behind the Cleveland Spiders in the A. L. Central and 0.5 games back of the Tampa Bay Rays for the third Wild Card spot. Yes, it’s that time of year: scoreboard watching! The Spiders and the Chicago White Sox (who are 3.5 games back of Cleveland) play each other today while the Rays are playing the Kansas City Royals right now.

The local nine continue their series against the Texas Rangers, who are really kinda just almost out of contention at this point in the season. Texas, where Bob Wills is still the king, sends Glenn Otto, who has two first names as his first and last name (super sketchy), to the bump tonight. He sports a 4.96 ERA/5.47 FIP in 18 starts this year. His other stats aren’t very eye-popping: 7.1 K/9, 1.416 WHIP, 7.8 H/9, 5.0 BB/9. He’s mostly a ground-ball pitcher that features a low-90s four-seamer and a low-80s slider and will work in a curveball and changeup from time to time.

The Twins will rely on Chris Archer tonight. He’s posted a 4.15 ERA/4.42 FIP in his 20 starts this season. Someone said some good stuff about him recently, so it gives me hope that the good stuff will continue. (I can’t find the said good stuff, so take my word for it. I used to make sandwiches for a living, come on.) The Twins have lost in his last six outings, but in five of those starts, he hasn’t gotten the run support with Minnesota scratching across only four or fewer runs in those games.

Minnesota did announce that starter Tyler Mahle was placed on the 15-day Injured List with right shoulder inflammation. Southpaw Devin Smeltzer has been summoned from Triple-A St Paul and will report to the bullpen. It seems that Cole Sands will get a start in the near future and Smeltzer will serve as left-handed long-relief.

GO TWIMS GO