Minnesota @ Cleveland preview
Progressive Field
Last Meeting ( Jul 21, 2010 ) Cleveland 0, Minnesota 6
After an unlikely win on Thursday, the Minnesota Twins are hoping their luck will hold up over the weekend.
The Twins will be looking to keep pace in the American League Central when they open a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians on Friday.
In danger of slipping 2 ½ games behind the front-running Chicago White Sox in the Central, Minnesota got a gift from one of the more ridiculous things at a baseball stadium - the catwalk.
Knotted at 6-6 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the ninth inning after blowing a 6-0 lead on Thursday, Jason Repko doubled and moved to third on a groundout before Joe Mauer was intentionally walked. Jason Kubel came up next and hit a towering popup in the infield that in any other park in the majors would have been the final out.
But not at Tropicana Field. Nope. Instead, the ball hit off the first row of catwalks that line the roof of the stadium, deflecting enough so that the Rays infielders could not recover to make the catch and allowing Repko to score the go-ahead run.
That gave the Twins a split of their four-game series against the AL East contenders and set them up nicely for a battle against the AL Central basement-dwelling Indians. A strong series against Cleveland would keep Minnesota within striking distance and set the club up for its three-game showdown at Chicago next week.
Cleveland is coming off a split of its own, taking two games at Boston despite the gruesome loss of catcher and star prospect Carlos Santana to a knee injury in Monday’s opener. Santana was finally able to undergo an MRI exam on the knee after swelling subsided on Thursday and found out he will need season-ending surgery.
With injuries and trades having significantly trimmed their lineup, the Indians are now using five different regulars with sub-.250 batting averages. They trotted three players out on Thursday with averages at .192 or below.
That kind of attack won’t do them any favors against Minnesota ace Francisco Liriano, who gets the ball in today’s opener. The left-hander has not allowed a run in any of his last three starts and has gotten better in each one, lowering his hits allowed to two while striking out 11 in seven innings against Seattle last Sunday.
Liriano has won four in a row overall, notching 33 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings.
One of those outings was against Cleveland on July 21, when Liriano gave up six hits in seven scoreless innings and struck out eight. He has faced the Indians three times already this season, yielding a total of three runs while earning three wins.
Cleveland will counter with rookie Jeanmar Gomez. The 22-year-old right-hander from Venezuela is one of a number of young pitchers being given a chance to prove himself for the Indians in this lost season.
Gomez has taken the opportunity and run with it so far, earning wins in his first two outings while surrendering a total of four runs - two earned - and 10 hits in 12 innings.