Game 60: Guardians at Twins

Quick game thread for today with 2 important notes on the game.

First, Triston McKenzie makes his season debut for the Guardians today after missing the first two months with a shoulder injury. Shane Bieber may be the household name thanks to his Cy Young win a few years ago, but McKenzie is Cleveland’s best starter and would have been a Cy Young candidate if not for the injury this year. He’s their next ace in their long, long line of them in recent years.

The good news is the Twins actually played him pretty well last year, with McKenzie going 1-2 with a 5.46 ERA against the home squad.

The bad news, and the second note, is that the Twins are running out potentially their worst lineup of the year. Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa are still unavailable and Alex Kirilloff came in sick today and will miss the game. Kyle Garlick is forced to start against a tough righty and the 3-4-5 hitters are Donovan Solano, Max Kepler, and Ryan Jeffers, AND the only bench option is Christian Vazquez.

They’ve been able to put up runs with some bad lineups a few times this last week, but they’ll be put to the test today as they try to take 3 out of 4 from Cleveland.