That's the Ticket: Last Chance

Diamondback Drama

I’ll grant you that the final matchup is a little goofy. This year’s divisional alignment changes mean the Twins final home series is going to be an inter-league affair against the Diamondbacks, who I wasn’t sure the Twins have ever played before. Turns out they have – they swept the Twins as recently as 2011 – but this is their first trip to Target Field. The last time they visited MInnesota was in 2009 when the Twins swept them.

If you think the Twins' year has been a bummer, Diamondbacks fans would like to have a word with you. Arizona is one of only three teams with a worse record than the Twins. And while the Twins seem to be (ever so) slowly making some progress, the D-backs are in full meltdown mode. Three years ago they won 92 games and made the playoffs. The last two years they finished at .500 and missed the playoffs. But this year, they are battling Texas for the worst record in the majors.

The slide is costing people their jobs, from the players to the front office. Tony LaRussa was brought in midyear to become the club’s “Chief Baseball Officer” and earlier this month he removed GM Kevin Towers from his responsibilities. It also appears that manager Kirk Gibson is on shaky ground, as he has lost any player support he had. Their big offseason acquisition, slugger Mark Trumbo, has been hurt most of the year and the club is wondering if he would make more sense with an American League team, so there is talk of trading him.

The Draft Race

The Twins (relative) success on this homestand has helped make going to games interesting, but they are in danger of hurting their MLB draft position. Here are where things sit going into Sunday’s games:

Texas Rangers – 61 wins

Arizona Diamondback – 62 wins

Colorado Rockies – 64 wins

Minnesota Twins – 66 wins

Boston Red Sox – 67 wins

Houston Astros – 68 wins

Chicago Cubs – 69 wins

This series creates a unique opportunity: if the Twins get swept, they would be within a game of Arizona to improve on their MLB draft order. Understand, I’m not someone who roots for that, but it’s nice to know we’re covered either way.

That’s the Ticket

The Twins will be trotting out their three best pitchers for this series, which is also heartening.

• Ricky Nolasco has been looking more like the guy the Twins thought they signed, with a 3.09 ERA over his last five starts. He’ll start Monday night.
  
• Kyle Gibson takes the mound on Tuesday night. He's been the opposite of Nolasco, but finally had a decent outing last week after struggling through the last two months. He’s at 165 IP, which is already 13 more innings than he has ever tallied in his professional career. A 175 inning year would be yet one more step forward for him this year.
  
• But the ticket I want the most is Wednesday’s afternoon tilt. Phil Hughes will be on the mound, making the last start of his breakthrough year. He passed 200 inning in his last start and still has a sparkling 3.61 ERA and 181 strikeouts. Plus, the forecast that afternoon is 73 and sunny. We aren’t going to get many more days like that this year. We’re going to get none where we get to watch baseball at Target Field.