San Francisco has been a perennial contender the past several years but has struggled this season, and is running out of time to turn it around. Minnesota has a nice young core but it seems unlikely that its pitching holds up as the season goes along.
Even though the Twins have the superior record the Giants have the ability to win this series as they are playing it at home.
This series will be held from Friday, June 9 through Sunday, June 11, 2017, at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.
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Pitching Matchups
The opening game of the series will feature the Twins’ Ervin Santana against the Giant’s Matt Moore. Santana has put together a fantastic season, entering with a 7-3 record and a 2.44 ERA. He was nearly untouchable early on, but was hit hard for seven runs in four innings last time out and is not as good as his early numbers would indicate. Moore is 2-6 with a 5.22 ERA. He has given up a lot of home runs this year and seems unlikely to live up to the hype of his top prospect status many years ago.
The Saturday matchup will pit Minnesota’s Jose Berrios against San Francisco’s Jeff Samardzija. This one could be low-scoring as both pitchers have really impressive stuff. Berrios is 4-1 with a 2.76 ERA with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of better than three-to-one. Samardzija has a 2-7 record with a 4.29 ERA, but his peripheral numbers portend future dominance.
In the series finale, the Giants plan to start Matt Cain. He is 3-5 on the season with a 4.87 ERA. Cain is a former All-Star but he has a poor strikeout-to-walk ratio and is a fringe starter at this point in his career. The Twins have yet to name a starter for this matchup.
Player To Watch
Buster Posey -- The Giants’ catcher has once again been dynamic at the plate. He is batting .348 on the season with a .440 on-base-percentage and a .963 OPS. Posey has eight homers but only 18 RBIs on the season as the players in front of him have struggled to get on base.
Posey figures to be good once again in this series, but he needs help. Brandon Belt and Eduardo Nunez have done their part, but so many other batters have underperformed. The Giants suffered a big blow when they lost Madison Bumgarner for months due to an early-season injury, and the offense hasn’t picked it up.
Posey is arguably the best catcher in baseball, but the San Francisco lineup around him needs to give him a lot more help.
Key Stat
28. That’s the Twins’ negative run-differential on the season, which is a surprising number to see on a team which currently sits in first place. Minnesota has gone 7-4 in one-run games to help its record, and it’s otherwise done a good job of winning close games.
The Twins’ expected win-loss record at this point is 26-30 based on run-differential, and so the 30-26 record has been impressive. Minnesota hopes its young talent can continue to improve as the season moves along, and it needs to or else the law of averages will likely send the Twins down the standings.
The Cleveland Indians made the World Series last season and figure to eventually overtake Minnesota in the A.L. Central. However, if the Twins are still ahead at the trading deadline, it’s possible the front office looks to get it some help through some deals, and then making the playoffs would become more realistic.
Winning this road series would help, and the Twins are an impressive 18-8 away from home this year and would love to keep that rolling.
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