After taking management of the American League Central race with a formidable 4-2 highway journey, the Minnesota Twins open a six-game homestand with a three-game sequence towards the New York Mets on Friday night time in Minneapolis.
Left-hander Dallas Keuchel (1-1, 5.06 ERA) will make his fifth begin for the Twins and can be opposed by right-hander Kodai Senga (10-7, 3.08).
Keuchel is coming off a no-decision at Texas on Saturday when he allowed 5 runs on 5 hits, together with house runs to Adolis Garcia and Sam Huff, over 3 1/3 innings in a recreation the Twins rallied to win 9-7 in 10 innings.
The 2015 AL Cy Younger Award winner is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA in three profession begins towards the Mets with all three appearances coming in 2019 when he pitched for the Atlanta Braves.
Senga has been one of many few brilliant spots for an underachieving New York staff that went into full rebuild mode on the commerce deadline. He acquired a no-decision in an eventual 2-1 win over Seattle final Friday when he allowed only one run on 5 hits over seven innings. He walked two and matched his profession excessive with 12 strikeouts.
The Twins (73-67), who trailed defending AL Central champion Cleveland by a half-game on the All-Star break, gained two of three video games towards the Texas Rangers and Guardians on their highway journey and returned house with a six-game lead with 22 video games left to play.
“I imply, it is exhausting to not just like the highway journey,” Minnesota supervisor Rocco Baldelli mentioned after a 2-1 loss within the sequence finale at Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon. “We did loads of the issues that we needed to do the final six days.”
The Twins outscored the Guardians 28-9 in successful the primary two video games of the sequence whereas rolling up 31 hits however managed simply two hits in Wednesday’s soggy loss that included a 66-minute rain delay.
The Guardians gained the season sequence 7-6 and would maintain the tiebreaker ought to the Twins falter down the stretch and end tied with Cleveland. However Minnesota performs simply two groups — the Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds — with successful data of their remaining seven sequence, together with three towards groups (Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies) which are among the many backside 4 in win share.
New York (64-75) enters Friday’s contest with a 1 1/2-game lead over Washington with 23 video games left within the battle to keep away from final place within the NL East. The Mets cut up a two-game midweek sequence with the Nationals after a 3-2 walk-off loss on Wednesday.
The Mets are utilizing September to get a gauge on a few of their younger expertise heading into 2024. 4 rookies — Mark Vientos, Francisco Alvarez, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio — batted fifth by way of eighth within the batting order in an 11-5 victory over the Nats on Tuesday, a recreation that noticed Brandon Nimmo hit two house runs to extend his profession excessive to 22.
Nimmo mentioned he isn’t apprehensive about the place the Mets end and is targeted on serving to information the newcomers.
“I am attempting to see what they do each day and mentor them,” Nimmo mentioned. “I am extra apprehensive about that, truthfully. I might care much less whether or not we end final or second to final within the division. I actually do not care. I am wanting in direction of how can we make this staff nearly as good as potential for subsequent 12 months.”
—Subject Degree Media