First Pitch: 6:15 pm CDT

TV: FOX / ~ / Radio: TIBN

After a disappointing opener on national television, the Twins will look to bounce back with an encouraging second game, on national television. As the old saying goes, the Apple doesn’t fall far from the FOX, and that’s where Minnesota and Cleveland will be duking it out this Saturday evening.

They’ll do so with the Guardians having opened up a 2.5-game lead on the Twins, who are no longer in sole possession of second place, meaning that while they continue to win ballgames here, the Guards will have their eye on the scoreboard out of Oakland, where the second-place White Sox are taking on the A’s.

The AL Central standings are brought to you by my poor grandmother, a Tigers fan.

The Twins sent out Dylan Bundy last night to no avail; tonight they’ll see if Chris Archer’s allotted 12 outs can get the job done. Early starting pitching failures doomed the Twins last night, as despite scoring six unanswered runs, they had already allowed seven. Conventional wisdom dictates that you score more than your opponents do, at least if your goal remains winning the division, and not falling into obscurity around the halfway mark of September.

The Guardians are sending the slightly-more-dependable Triston McKenzie, who’s been enjoying one heck of a campaign out of the Cleveland rotation. Minnesota is 2-1 in games against McKenzie so far in 2022, having most recently tagged him for seven earned runs in late June. Let’s see more of that!

Of course, seeing a performance like that would require the lineup to pull a little more weight than they’ve been able to do on this injury-decimated roster. The bottom half of the order has plenty of heart n’ hustle, but it’s hits that we’ll need this weekend.

GO TWINS GO!