Twins Notebook 8/25: Minnesota Twins Seek Revenge on (Not Justin) Bieber

[Matthew Taylor]

The Twins will look to build upon Monday night’s victory over the Cleveland Indians with another matchup against their division rivals. This time, though, the Twins will face much stiffer competition as team ace, and Cy Young front runner will take the mound for the Tribe.Last Night’s Game Recap

MIN 3, CLE 2: Bullpen Bends, Does Not Break

 

TODAY

Minnesota Twins at Cleveland Indians, 6:10pm CDT

 

Twins Starter: Rich Hill

1-1, 4.70 ERA, 1.30 WHIP

 

Download attachment: hill.png

 

Rich Hill is coming off of his worst start of the 2020 season last week when he allowed 4 runs, 4 hits and a walk in just 2.2 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers. Hill struggled mightily with missing bats, and didn’t have the same type of command that we saw from him in his first start of the season. Whether his rough start was a result of rust coming off of a long IL stint or whether his 40-year-old age is finally catching up with him will be something to monitor in tonight’s game. Hill will benefit from facing a Cleveland lineup that continues to struggle, as they are 28th in baseball in runs/game (3.93) and batting average (.213).

 

Indians Starter: Shane Bieber

5-0, 1.11 ERA, 0.76 WHIP

 

Download attachment: bieber.png

 

There’s been no starting pitcher in baseball better than Bieber to start the 2020 season, and the Twins experienced that first hand the last time the right hander faced the Twins this season. On July 30, Bieber held the Twins to 3 hits over 8 innings with 13 strikeouts. The Minnesota Twins batters looked completely lost at the plate against Bieber and were unable to put up any sort of fight. Bieber uses his full arsenal of 5 different pitches to neutralize batters from both sides of the plate, and uses excellent command to avoid mistakes and get deep in games.

 

Lineups

 

 

 

2 Things to Watch For

 

1. Sanó's Streak

Miguel Sanó has been on an absolute tear for the Minnesota Twins, and the numbers are absolutely eye popping:

• Over his last 13 games, Sanó owns a 1.286 OPS.
• Miguel Sanó is currently sporting a 8 game hitting streak, owning a .433/.500/.900 slash line during the streak with 8 doubles, 2 HR and 7 RBI
• Miguel Sanó has recorded an extra base hit in 8 consecutive games. He is 3 games off of the Twins record of 11 consecutive games with an XBH by Brian Dozier in 2016.

Will Sanó be the guy who’s finally able to come through against Shane Bieber? Will his hit streak and XBH streak continue tonight? It will certainly be something to watch!

 

2. Bullpen Usage

As has become customary for the Minnesota Twins in 2020, the bullpen is in a tough spot heading into tonight’s game. Following a bullpen game on Sunday, the Twins needed to turn to several of its high leverage arms last night. After pitching on consecutive nights, Taylor Rogers, Trevor May and Sergio Romo all figure to be out of the bullpen mix tonight. With Clippard injured, this figures to only leave Tyler Duffey and Jorge Alacala for high leverage spots tonight. Rich Hill was unable to get through 3 innings in his last start, but getting through at least 5 or 6 innings will be key for the right hander tonight.

 

Download attachment: bullpen usage.png

 

News & Notes

• We are exactly halfway through the MLB season with many teams having now completed 30 games. Through the halfway point, the Minnesota Twins are tied with the Oakland Athletics for the most wins in the American League with 20. Shane Bieber (Indians), Anthony Rendon (Angels) and Brandon Lowe (Rays) lead the American League in WAR with 1.8 and Mike Yastrzemski (Giants) leads the National league in WAR with 2.2.

Who are your League MVP and Cy Young Award winners through the first half of the MLB season?

• After an RBI single in the 5th inning of LAA’s 11-4 loss against the Houston Astros, Albert Pujols passed Alex Rodriguez for the second most RBI in Major League Baseball history with 2,087. He now trails only Hank Aaron who posted 2,297 career RBI

 

Around the AL Central

 

STL 9, KCR 3

CHC 9, DET 3

 

1. MIN 20-10 (+41)

2. CLE 17-12 (+27)

3. CWS 17-12 (+30)

4. DET 11-16 (-37)

5. KCR 11-16 (-18)

 

What will you be watching for in tonight’s game? What do you think will be the biggest key for the matchup? Leave a comment below and start the conversation!

 

MORE FROM TWINS DAILY

— Latest Twins coverage from our writers

— Recent Twins discussion in our forums

— Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

 

Click here to view the article

[Trov]

Interesting on who is leading in WAR.  Even more so that Rendon is, when his team is not doing well at all only 9 wins.  Same with Giants in NL.  So many people have wanted MVP connected to WAR, but this would for sure be a time not too.  I get you may be valuable to your team, but if they are in last place, well Giants are on 6 game win streak to be second to last, should you still get MVP?  I am not one to say it should always go to best player on best team, but to go to best player on the worst or nearly worst team does not make much sense either.  

 

I see this game going either Hill pitches deep and they have another pitching duel, or Hill struggles again but either he or Acala and Coulombe are asked to take a few innings regardless of how well they are doing.  With Beiber on the mound if we give up 3 runs there is not much of a chance of winning and should save the pen for tomorrow. 

[jkcarew]

Can all three of Hill, Alcala and Duffey pitch really, really well tonight? I think that's what it would take for the Twins to win. If Hill blows up, I'm guessing they will ride Alcala and Coulombe and try to save the bullpen.

 

I'm not a WAR guy for MVP. Not thanks to the defensive metrics included in WAR. I'll go with OPS+ or wRC+, and adjust from there based on what the eyeballs tell me regarding the rest of their games. Team performance means something to me...but not everything. I guess that's why there's often so much controversy. In the AL, I'll go with Bieber for CY; Cruz definitely in the running for MVP even as a DH; great race brewing for RoY among young center fielders Kyle Lewis and Luis Robert.

[Diesel]

Clevinger will be back for the series finale..... gotta win 1 of 2....

[MMMordabito]

 

I see this game going either Hill pitches deep and they have another pitching duel, or Hill struggles again but either he or Acala and Coulombe are asked to take a few innings regardless of how well they are doing.  With Beiber on the mound if we give up 3 runs there is not much of a chance of winning and should save the pen for tomorrow. 

 

If it's close and Hill can get through five, I'd challenge Alcala to keep the Twins in the game and then let Duffey finish it off if/when the Twins are in front.

 

If Hill gets rammed, then I'd just let Coulombe wear one and use Poppen (21 pitches two days ago) if it gets unwatchable.

 

$.02 of a moderately informed observer.

[IndianaTwin]

 

If it's close and Hill can get through five, I'd challenge Alcala to keep the Twins in the game and then let Duffey finish it off if/when the Twins are in front.

 

If Hill gets rammed, then I'd just let Coulombe wear one and use Poppen (21 pitches two days ago) if it gets unwatchable.

 

$.02 of a moderately informed observer.

 

Yep. With Bauer going tonight against Hill, this is the "if we win it, we're lucky" game of the series, which is why you pull out the stops and get game 1 in the bag, even if it means using May, Romo, and Rogers. 

 

And don't forget Adrianza if we're down six.  

[COTwinsFan]

After an RBI single in the 5th inning of LAA’s 11-4 loss against the Houston Astros, Albert Pujols passed Alex Rodriguez for the second most RBI in Major League Baseball history with 2,087. He now trails only Hank Aaron who posted 2,297 career RBI

 

Pujols is actually 3rd place. Babe Ruth is 2nd with 2214 RBI's. It seems Babe Ruth is turning into a myth, that might be his most impressive feat.

[Matthew Taylor]

 

After an RBI single in the 5th inning of LAA’s 11-4 loss against the Houston Astros, Albert Pujols passed Alex Rodriguez for the second most RBI in Major League Baseball history with 2,087. He now trails only Hank Aaron who posted 2,297 career RBI

 

Pujols is actually 3rd place. Babe Ruth is 2nd with 2214 RBI's. It seems Babe Ruth is turning into a myth, that might be his most impressive feat.

 

Was wondering who would catch this

 

Since RBI wasn't technically a stat when The Babe played, he's not on the all-time RBI list, like it or not.

[USAFChief]

 

Was wondering who would catch this

 

Since RBI wasn't technically a stat when The Babe played, he's not on the all-time RBI list, like it or not.

"Oh my god! You mean that's the same guy?"