Texas @ Minnesota preview
Target Field
Last Meeting ( Sep 3, 2010 ) Texas 3, Minnesota 4
The Minnesota Twins are staying in postseason form with a slew of close games. The Texas Rangers appear to be on cruise control of late.
The Twins will be looking to take advantage of their fellow playoff hopeful Rangers again when the teams meet on Saturday.
With the American League looking more settled by the day in terms of the playoffs - the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will almost certainly both make the playoffs out of the AL East and Texas owns the biggest division lead in baseball in the West - the only team still fighting for its playoff life is Minnesota.
The Twins looked every bit the fighters in the series opener on Friday, squeezing out two runs in the seventh and hanging on for a 4-3 win to push their lead over the Chicago White Sox to four full games in the AL Central.
Rookie Matt Fox was forced to make his major league debut as Friday’s starter after manager Ron Gardenhire had to use two rotation regulars - Brian Duensing and Nick Blackburn - in Thursday’s 13-inning loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Texas got Ian Kinsler back in its lineup for the first time in over a month in the loss. The Rangers will spend the rest of the month trying to keep all of their players healthy as the club plans for its first postseason since 1999.
Josh Hamilton, who has been getting treatment for a sore knee recently, went 2-for-3 with a run scored on Friday. He was forced from the game in the eighth due to a stiff lower back.
Carl Pavano will be looking to snap a three-start losing streak when he takes the mound for the Twins on Saturday. The veteran right-hander was one of the most consistent starters in the American League from the beginning of June until the middle of August, allowing three runs or less in 11 of 13 starts while completing at least seven innings 10 times.
But things haven’t gone quite as smoothly lately, as Pavano has suffered the loss in each of his last three outings while allowing 15 runs in 21 total innings. One of those losses came against the Rangers on Aug. 24, when he was knocked around for four runs on eight hits in eight innings. He has made five starts against Texas in his career, going 1-3 with a 7.62 ERA.
The Rangers will counter with right-hander Colby Lewis, who is attempting to snap a lengthy losing streak of his own.
The 31-year-old has not won since July 16, going 0-6 over his last eight starts. A lot of that has been just bad luck, however, as Lewis has allowed three runs or less five times during that span.
He did not earn a decision when he went up against Pavano on Aug. 24, allowing three runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Lewis is coming off his worst start of the season against the Oakland Athletics last Sunday, when he yielded a season-high seven runs - five earned - and eight hits in 5 2/3 frames.