Twins Notebook 8/22: Will the Twins Ever Win in Kansas City?

[Andrew Thares]

The Minnesota Twins struggles with the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City continued last night, as the Twins dropped to 0-4 on the season there following last night’s 7-2 loss. To right the ship, the Twins will send the reliable Randy Dobnak to the mound to face the Royals rookie Brady Singer for his third consecutive starts.Last Night’s Game Recap

MIN 2, KC 7: Royal Pain

 

TODAY

Twins at Royals, 6:05 pm CDT

Betting Lines: MIN -160, KC +140, O/U: 9.5

 

Twins Starter: Randy Dobnak, RHP 1.42 ERA

 

The Twins have had their fair share of struggles with the starting rotation being healthy and available, and if it weren’t for the continued pleasant surprise of Randy Dobnak, who knows where they would be right now. In Dobnak’s five starts this season, the Twins are 4-1, with the only loss coming in the second game of the season, where Dobnak allowed just one run over four innings against the White Sox.

 

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One of the encouraging things in Randy Dobnak’s game has been the improved Statcast metrics that he has. Earlier in the season, some of these metrics, like his xwOBA for example, were not all that compelling, despite how well his baseline numbers looked. However, those have improved drastically over the past couple of starts, as his xwOBA is .309 which ranks in the 60th percentile of MLB pitchers this season. Still, we should expect some regression from how he has been pitching, but the longer he can keep up his success the better.

 

Royals Starter: Brady Singer, RHP 4.56 ERA

 

The Twins should be quite familiar with Royals rookie Brady Singer by this point. In his last two outings against the Twins, Singer has surrendered five earned runs on six walks and six strikeouts in 10 and 2/3 innings pitched. Walks have been a bit of an issue for Singer early on, has he has allowed at least two in each of his five starts to begin his MLB career. This comes as a bit of a surprise, as Singer’s career walk rate in the minors was just 2.4 BB/9.

 

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While there is certainly a lot of potential in the young arm of Brady Singer, it is apparent early on that he still has some room to grow to become the front of the rotation starting pitcher that the Royals one day envision him becoming. While his stuff is impressive, it seems as though MLB hitters have been able to handle it much better than the minor league level bats he was facing previously. However, we are still just five starts into his career, so the book is far from being out on Singer.

 

Twins Lineup

 

1. Max Kepler, RF

2. Jorge Polanco, SS

3. Eddie Rosario, DH

4. Marwin Gonzalez, 3B

5. Jake Cave, CF

6. Miguel Sano, 1B

7. Luis Arraez, 2B

8. LaMonte Wade Jr., LF

9. Alex Avila, C

 

News & Notes

 

- Jake Odorizzi left Firday’s game in the fourth inning after taking a comebacker off the ribs off the bat of Alex Gordon. Fortunately, X-Rays came back negative, but the situation was inches away from being much worse.

 

- Zack Littell also left last night’s ballgame with quote “some inflammation, tendinitis-type soreness that’s progressing.”

 

- Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg is set to have season-ending hand surgery to help with the carpal tunnel issues he is having in his pitching hand.

 

AROUND THE AL CENTRAL

Tigers 10, Indians 5

White Sox 10, Cubs 1

 

1. MIN 17-10 (+34)

2. CLE 16-10 (+26)

3. CHW 16-11 (+28)

4. KC 11-15 (-6)

5. DET 10-14 (-29)

 

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Why is Cave batting number 5 or anywhere in the top six?