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It’s overcast and warm as the Minnesota Twins prepare to take on the Cleveland Indians in the first of three games to start a six-game homestand. It’ll be a pair of righties tangling on the mound, as the Indians will send Danny Salazar (4.15 ERA, 3.72 FIP in 80.1 innings) out while the Twins will counter with Bartolo Colon (6.77 ERA, 4.73 FIP in 94.1 innings). More on that in a bit. The Twins come into the series 59-57 -- five games behind first-place Cleveland and in search of their first win over the Indians in Minneapolis. The Indians are 64-52, and 6-4 over their last 10 games, while the Twins are 8-2 over their last 10. This is the time to take advantage of head-to-head divisional matchups, manager Paul Molitor said. “Obviously it carries a little more significance than the other times we’ve played them during the year,” Molitor said during his pregame availability. “They’re the team in our division that’s above us. The inter-divisional games are always two-game swings each and every time you play. You can cut (the deficit in the division) to four or increase it to six -- we’re aware of that. We’d like to continue to do some of the things we’ve been doing.” What are those things, you might ask? “We’ve been pitching well enough,” Molitor said. “Our offense has been as hot maybe as it has been all year. We hope to continue to do that. We’ll try to keep it in perspective with the amount of games we have remaining, and the fact you’re just trying to win games. It should be fun with Colon pitching tonight and the Indians coming in on a nice night at Target Field.” Please click through to ZoneCoverage.com to read the rest of this article here!

Monday marked the Twins last off day before the end of the season and provided a good chance to take a step back and survey what lies ahead. Minnesota opens a three-game series with Cleveland coming to town, with Tuesday marking the first of seven remaining games between the Twins and the Tribe. So essentially, more than half the Twins’ remaining 13 games come against Cleveland, a team which has underachieved virtually the entire season, but finds itself a mere 1.5 games behind the local nine.The series matchups don’t favor the Twins, either. Danny Salazar takes the mound for Cleveland Tuesday night, and he’s proven to be one of the most physically gifted pitchers in the American League, with 9.7 strikeouts per nine, a league-average groundball rate and a 3.48 ERA to go along with legit 95 mph heat. His changeup (27.2 percent whiff rate) is absolutely devastating as well. Things get no easier with Corey Kluber starting on Wednesday. And while he’s taken a bit of a step back — far less than most think, however — from last year’s Cy Young pace, he’s still had the Twins’ number all season long. He’s held them to a .085/.128/.146 batting line with a 1.38 ERA across three starts. In 26 innings, he’s allowed only 11 baserunners. Cody Anderson starts on Thursday, and while he’s a total wild card — he’s faced the Twins just once, and they smoked him — keep in mind that manager Terry Francona was willing to bump Trevor Bauer from the rotation to keep him in there. After a rough August, Anderson has a 1.78 ERA in four September starts. And if that isn’t tough enough, the upcoming four-game series with Cleveland promises to be just as tough. Not only are the odds good that the Twins will get Kluber again in the series opener on Monday, but that’s four games in a row down the stretch against the team which ranks fourth in the AL in starter ERA, first in strikeouts and second in FIP. It’s pretty easy to make an argument that this rotation and the Rays’ are in a dogfight to be the best in the AL. It’s not certain which Tigers team the Twins will find at Comerica after the first Cleveland series, but there are a couple things at play here. The Twins lost two of three to Detroit at Target Field last week, and this is probably a Tigers team that hasn’t totally forgotten the thrashing they took to end last season. The Twins took two of three from the Tigers in Detroit in mid-September last year and split a four-game series to end the season with two blowout wins when they were jockeying for position in the playoffs. The Tigers were summarily bounced from the playoffs in three straight by the Orioles and find themselves fighting to get out of the cellar at the present time with a 69-79 record — a game back of fourth-place Chicago. The other team in the Twins’ way of the end of the season is Kansas City, and while an 11-game lead wouldn’t suggest a team needing to get things together, it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride for the Royals for a while now. The Royals are 7-13 in their last 20 games and now are battling with Toronto for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Royals have a two-game lead as of this writing, and of course at this point it’s unclear where that’ll stand when they invade Target Field from Oct. 2-4, but ultimately it’d be ideal for the Twins if they have nothing left to play for. The odds don’t seem to favor it, however. So what’s a realistic need for the Twins record-wise in the 13 games that remain? Fangraphs’ Cool Standings presently gives the Twins a 6.1 percent chance of making the playoffs, and an expected final record of 82-80. That’s progress from the last four seasons, but disappointing to be sure. Not many teams get to the cusp of the playoffs after a rough stretch and revel in the fact that they almost made it, even if that represents considerable growth. Cool Standings projects 89 wins for the Yankees and the top Wild Card slot; the Twins would have to finish 13-0 to match that. So … that can clearly be ruled out. The projections suggest 85.4 wins for the Astros and 82.7 for the Angels; we’ll round to 85 and 83 for mathematical ease. At 76-73, the Twins would need to go 9-4 to match that projection for the Astros — and maybe 10-3 to be safe — and that’s assuming the Halos don’t flip the script. Going 7-6 would be enough to beat their projection and the Angels’ as well, but that would only claim the third Wild Card spot which, as of this writing, doesn’t exist. In short, the Twins are going to have to go all Chris Sale on Corey Kluber and friends if they’re going to punch their ticket into October. Well, further into October. The odds don’t favor it, but that’s why they play the games. This content originated at Cold Omaha here; please consider clicking through to support it. Click here to view the article

Five words: weekend baseball at Target Field. I've been waiting six months for those words and they're finally here. Now to scientifically determine which game to attend: Best Pitching Matchup Sometimes things just line up right - and then there is this series. Everything is off by a day, and it's the schedule makers fault. For some reason, the Indian's last series was just two games, so the rotations don't match up.For instance, if the baseball gods were smiling on us, we would get to see our ace, Phil Hughes, face the Indians ace (and 2015 Cy Young winner) Corey Kluber. But Kluber pitches Friday versus Mike Pelfrey and Hughes doesn't pitch until Saturday. The day after each of them take the mound, both teams will be starting 25-year-old prospects(1) whose questionable control(2) led to them being last minute demotions in spring training(3) but who have been recalled quickly due to other pitcher's injuries(4). Wouldn't that have been fun? But the Twins version, Trevor May, pitches on Sunday while his karmic Twin, Danny Salazar, pitches on Saturday. Winner: Saturday, I suppose, since it means I don't need to watch Mike Pelfrey on Friday or TJ House on Sunday. But mostly I want to just pout. Which Game Will Have The Best Weather? There is a 100% chance of rain for Sunday, so let's toss that one out. I'll take a Minnesota Summer Night over a Minnesota Summer Afternoon - but it's not summer. Winner: Saturday Afternoon Game With The Highest Percentage Of Hard Core Baseball People Saturday afternoon's game starts at 1:00 and the Wild playoff game starts at 2:00. I suspect that Hrbeks' and Town Hall Tap are going to be ROCKING. Winner: Tie between Friday and Sunday Game With Best Giveaway All three days the first 15,000 fans get a Twins magnet schedule. Anyone else need a bigger fridge for all of the magnet schedules they're accumulated over the years, or is that just me? It is. OK then. Winner: 3 way tie. Game With Most Fun Crowd If you haven't heard, there is a new bar at Target Field: Barrion on the lower level near the left field foul pole where a Twins Pro Shop used to be. (Don't remember that place? That's why it's now a bar.) Anyway, they have a couple of levels of standing room for watching the game, signature "Trinity" margaritas and a happy hour on Fridays if you get there between 4:30 and 5:30. Winner: Friday night Game With The Best Seats Sunday has the most availability and the best prices across the board, including SIX Champions Club tickets. Love those. Winner: Sunday. Game Most Likely To Feature High Stirrup Socks In case you missed it, new Twins reliever J.D. Graham wears his stirrups high to help his legally blind mom see him on the field. Now don't you feel bad about booing him at the home opener? Don't be too hard on yourself. You're just a bad person. Winner: Friday. Mike Pelfrey is starting that game, which would seem to suggest we're most likely to see the backend of the bullpen that game. Game Twins Are Most Likely To Win It's possible the Twins could be favored in two of the three games this weekend. How often can you say that? Hughes vs. Salazar on Saturday seems to be in the Twins favor, especially if Salazar struggles with his command like he did in spring training (but not in his last AAA start). But if the weather holds up, I'll go with Sunday, because TJ House had a truly miserable outing in his last start, giving up six runs in just 1.1 innings vs. Detroit, which was also a Sunday afternoon game. On the other hand, he's left-handed and posted a 3.35 ERA last year. Winner: Me, for being so optimistic. Most Likely To See A Twins Team Not In Last Place If the Twins win on Friday night, they pass the Indians for fourth place in the AL Central. Doesn't that sound like a round of bad idea Friday night shots just waiting to be downed? Winner: Friday The winner is: Friday night. Also, us, for having this option this early in the spring. We’ll see you at the ballpark. Click here to view the article