The heat is on, in the immortal words of Glen Frey! Our hometown heroes venture into the sizzle and swelter of mid-July Texas heat to take on the Rangers tonight. It's a cool 106 degree day in Arlington, 62% dewpoint.....when the word sultry was developed Texas in July surely was in mind.  But...gametime temps estimated to be 85...Whew, what a relief.

Though the Texas skies are sunny this will be a Gray affair tonight, as our man Sonny takes the hill for the good guys and Jon, formerly Jonathan, tries his luck for the Rangers. Tonight is the the first meeting between the two teams this season. So who is hot, and who is not? as the Twins prepare to take on the Texas heat and the baseball Rangers. Read on to find out!

Gray vs Gray, both former #1 picks (Sonny #18 overall in 2011 to Oakland, Jon #3 overall in 2013 to Colorado)...between these former #1's, who has the better of things tonight? Sonny is tossing some seriously good ball for the good guys as we know. One random stat to ponder for tonight: Sonny in away games is at 19.2 innings pitched, 13H, 1.83 ERA with 2 BB/12 SO. (Better than he does at TF, by a lot, where his ERA is 2.83 on 35IP, 30H, 11ER, 12bb/42so). Jon, at home, is at 18IP, 15H, 3.44ERA, 4BB/25SO

Jon started slowly, very slowly, but picked it up in June and has been throwing it well of late. Last 7 Jon is 3-2, 2.70 ERA on 43IP, 32H, 13 ER, including his last game, a loss to the Mets where he went 5.2 IP, 6H, 3ER, 1BB/7SO. J Gray lives on the 4 seamer, tossing it 51% of the time, and a sometimes really good, sometimes not so good slider at 34%. This will be interesting with Mr Polanco tonight, as Jorge makes his living on the 4 seamer....strength against strength. Should be an early tell tonight of J Gray stuff. I look for Polanco to hit it really, really hard at some point. On the other hand, our sinker baller Sonny, throwing it 32% of the time, comes up against a feast or famine Rangers offense. One would think Corey Seager would anchor the offense, but he (and Mr Semien) have to date been a disappointment, considering the Rangers committed 1/2 billion in salary over the next 10 years to these two. Plenty of time for them to reclaim the level of performance they enjoyed the last few seasons, but both are far behind their production of last year. Texas is led instead by 1B Nathan Lowe, who has never faced Sonny Gray, and RF Adolis Garcia. The Rangers are tied with the Twins in HR', at #7 overall in MLB, (though having played 5 fewer games than Twins) but lag behind our guys in OBP and runs. If Sonny can keep it in the park, Twins should prevail.

Twins players to watch tonight: Polanco, and Arraez. Sonny "go this distance" Gray can manage this Ranger lineup, look for solid results from SG tonight, and 6 innings plus is very doable. Neither team is particularly familiar with the SP's.   Correa has a 5 AB's against JG,  that's it in our starting lineup. On the other side, Semien has 9PA's against Sonny, but Lowe and Garcia, zero.........so I give advantage Twins, because they are just a better team overall. Here's hoping Twins hydrated well yesterday, and will enjoy the thrill of victory in the sun and fun of Texas swelter.

Your starting lineups tonight:

 

Twins (47-38)                      

 

• Sonny Gray R 4-1  2.47 ERA
•  
  Confirmed Lineup
• 1B
  Luis Arraez L
• SS
  C. Correa R
• CF
  Byron Buxton R
• RF
  Max Kepler L
• 2B
  J. Polanco S
• DH
  A. Kirilloff L
• LF
  Nick Gordon L
• 3B
  Gio Urshela R
• C
  Ryan Jeffers R

 

Rangers (37-43)

• Jon Gray R

• 4-4 3.96 ERA
•  
  Confirmed Lineup
• 3B
  Josh Smith L
• 2B
  M. Semien R
• SS
  Corey Seager L
• RF
  A. Garcia R
• 1B
  N. Lowe L
• C
  Jonah Heim S
• LF
  Kole Calhoun L
• DH
  Mitch Garver R
• CF
  L. Taveras S

 

It's another day of baseball in July, folks, our guys are in first, and it just doesn't get any better than this! 

So everyone is invited to this party, kick up with a tall cool one, flip the burgers, bring the J Geils level of energy, and come as you are! (And if you happen to come across a video idea that expresses your opinion of the game tonight, please do share as the comments roll. Be creative, and have fun!)

 

 

Impressive debut, @Game7-91! Welcome to the big leagues!

Great fun to do it. Now hope our guys will help the party with a big win?

Absolutely love "Come As You Are" by Peter Wolf. Great song! Crank it up!

I’m going to watch this game in black and white to get the true gray experience

Time to win another series. The Rangers have a good lineup, but let's hope the Twins' Gray is the better pitcher. Mitch Garver is hitting eighth for the Rangers. I'm glad to see Kirilloff in the lineup for the Twins, would rather see him at first than DH.

2 hours ago, Game7-91 said:

Great fun to do it. Now hope our guys will help the party with a big win?

Well done!  Keep 'em comin'!

Texas signed the 2 pipe dream players I wanted last winter in Corey Seager and Jon Gray. I’ll be watching in envy tonight. 

Be watching in the AC in my house.  Been to alot of games in those type TX conditions starting in 1990.

2 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Texas signed the 2 pipe dream players I wanted last winter in Corey Seager and Jon Gray. I’ll be watching in envy tonight. 

I was just checking up on them on baseball reference - Seager (10 year deal) is not hitting close to as good as he was in LA and Semien (7 year deal) has been awful, though both have been good defensively. Gray has been OK, looks like his WHIP is very good for a starter. Plus Garver hasn't been what he used to - it's got to be frustrating to be a Rangers fan. 

3 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Texas signed the 2 pipe dream players I wanted last winter in Corey Seager and Jon Gray. I’ll be watching in envy tonight. 

Bring your wallet

For what it's worth, the temp is 84 with a dew point of 64 currently in Mpls.  Not my idea of comfortable!

@Vanimal46, hard to miss Texas with weather like this?

I would swap Kepler and Kirilloff in the order pho sho. 

1 minute ago, wsnydes said:

For what it's worth, the temp is 84 with a dew point of 64 currently in Mpls.  Not my idea of comfortable!

@Vanimal46, hard to miss Texas with weather like this?

This weekend in Austin is a high of 105 and 107. Don’t miss that at all. 

When I lived down in TX with MLB.tv these games were blacked out which made me mad. Glad I can watch it now with no problem! 

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

This weekend in Austin is a high of 105 and 107. Don’t miss that at all. 

Don't blame you there.  I wouldn't either.

I'm heading to the North Shore this weekend.  Highs in the low 70s.  I'll take that any day.

Sure they not playing ChiSux?

The TV view from behind the pitcher is different than what I'm used to seeing. Good start!! Bobble and bad throw on the same play nets Arraez  on first base.

Fielding error on the first play of the game is a nice start.

1 minute ago, wsnydes said:

Don't blame you there.  I wouldn't either.

I'm heading to the North Shore this weekend.  Highs in the low 70s.  I'll take that any day.

It's been really hot in Austin. My son and his family are spending their first summer there.

Nice!

C4!

2 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

It's been really hot in Austin. My son and his family are spending their first summer there.

Ish!

Buxton is turning into Sano at the plate. He was so magic in April. 

Error, HR.  I like it.

As long as the twins don't repeat that on the defensive side...

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The TV view from behind the pitcher is different than what I'm used to seeing. 

I wonder if the HP umpire's ball/strike calls will conform with the box from that view.

5 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

Fielding error on the first play of the game is a nice start.

But a homer by the 3rd is better 

Today is July 8

Gio! Gio!

13 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The TV view from behind the pitcher is different than what I'm used to seeing. Good start!! Bobble and bad throw on the same play nets Arraez  on first base.

I love straight away camera angles.  I think it could be a little lower and a little more zoomed in, but it's still great to be able to really see how pitchers' stuff moves, either lefty or righty.