Tampa Bay @ Minnesota preview
Target Field
Last Meeting ( Jul 2, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 1, Minnesota 2
On a team featuring two superstars with the initials "JM", it must come as a surprise to Minnesota Twins fans that their top run producer goes by the monogram "DY".
Delmon Young looks to end his strong first half with a bang as he guides the Twins into the third of their four-game weekend series with the Tampa Bay Rays. Tampa Bay opened the set with a 5-4 victory in 10 innings on Thursday, while Minnesota bounced back with a 2-1 triumph the following night.
As he has on several occasions this season, Young came to the rescue of a Twins team that struggled for most of the night against Rays hurler David Price. Young doubled home the tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning for his team-leading 54th RBI of the season, then scored the winning run on Danny Valencia's single.
Young has been a wonderful surprise for Minnesota this season. The former first overall pick had a checkered start to his career, criticized for having a short temper and struggling with major-league pitching to the point where he was dealt away by the Rays for starter Matt Garza.
After two underwhelming seasons with the Twins, Young is finally starting to show the promise Tampa saw in him when it made him the top pick in the 2003 draft. Young comes into Saturday's game batting .296, and his RBI total ranks him seventh in the American League - ahead of the Twins' dynamic duo of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.
Even the power numbers are coming around. Having never hit more than 13 home runs in a season prior to 2010, Young already has nine dingers at the halfway point of the season. And while he still isn't drawing as many walks as the Twins would like, he's on pace to record the lowest strikeout total of his four-year big-league career.
Young and the Twins will face Tampa Bay starter Wade Davis (5-9), who is hoping to avoid becoming the AL's first 10-game loser. Davis is on a personal five-game losing skid, which he extended in his last outing by giving up two runs on four hits over 7 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Davis hasn't pitched poorly during the streak. The 24-year-old hasn't surrendered more than three runs in any of his last four starts, but Tampa Bay has scored just six runs for him over that span.
He'll square off against Twins hurler Francisco Liriano (6-6). The strikeout specialist is also struggling, having lost each of his last three starts. The 26-year-old is coming off one of his worst outings of the season, having allowed six runs in six innings on the way to a 7-5 loss in Detroit.
Liriano is 2-1 all-time against the Rays, with a 2.39 ERA over 26 1/3 innings. His last start against them came back on May 30, 2009, when he allowed four runs on four innings and took the loss as Tampa earned a 5-2 victory.