At the non-waiver trade deadline, the Minnesota Twins traded away Jaime Garcia and Brandon Kintzler in an about-face move. One week prior, Minnesota acquired Garcia from the Braves as they looked to be buyers. Now, both the Twins and Texas Rangers meet up in a best-of-four series having both made moves with eyes on the future rather than today.
This series will be contested from Thursday, August 3, 2017 through Sunday, August 6, 2017 at Target Field in Minneapolis.
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Pitching Matchups
The Twins are deflated after a quick transition from deadline buyers to sellers. They’ve been in a slump and will look to Adalberto Mejia to try and get them out of the gate strong in this four-game set.
The Rangers will counter Mejia with Austin Bibens-Dirkx, a 32-year old rookie right-hander making just his seventh start.
Bibens-Dirkx is 3-1 with a 4.80 ERA and 1.283 WHIP. His numbers are okay from a high level, but his FIP is 6.49 and he’s allowed 13 home runs in just 50.2 innings. He’s also not striking out much of anyone with 27 strikeouts.
The righty’s been a bit better as a starter than reliever based on ERA and WHIP, but his strikeout to walk ratio is worse and his home run rate is through the roof as a starter, giving up almost one homer for every three innings.
In his last two starts, Bibens-Dirkx has allowed four runs without making it through six frames in either.
As for Mejia, the rookie southpaw is eight years younger than his counterpart with far more upside and success. After one rough start last year, he’s 4-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 16 starts here in 2017. His FIP is 4.83 and while his walk rate is still elevated, leading to shorter outings than desired, he’s done a much better job than Bibens-Dirkx with the long ball.
From a young rookie to Big Bart, the Twins will look to someone 20-years Mejia’s senior in the second game, sending Bartolo Colon to the hill. The Rangers counter with Martin Perez.
It’s been a tough year for Colon. He’s 2-9 with a 7.70 ERA in 16 games between Atlanta and Minnesota. He’s 0-1 with a 5.87 ERA in three starts with the Twins. He’s at the end, but did toss a quality start—his first since April—in his last game, allowing three runs in 6.1 innings against Oakland.
Perez, meanwhile, allowed eight runs in 4.1 innings against the Orioles in his last start. His ERA is now up to 5.13 and he’s just 5-9. The Rangers are 7-13 when he takes the ball.
The righty has been plagued by a low strikeout rate his entire career and in giving up so much contact, he’s allowing 11.4 hits per nine innings. That, coupled with a rate of 3.4 walks per nine leads to a high WHIP and a ton of base runners.
The Twins frantic search for pitching has led to their promotion of Dillon Gee. He will start on Saturday. Gee pitched in four games for the Rangers earlier this year and will now try and beat his former team.
In five games since joining the Twins’ farm team in Rochester, Gee went 3-1 with a 2.00 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in 27 innings.
From the minors to matching up opposite of Cole Hamels, Saturday promises to be a test for the veteran looking to stick in the Majors.
Hamels is the lone ace left in Texas. He’s 5-1 with a 4.01 ERA and 1.127 WHIP in his 12 starts. He missed a good chunk of time due to injury and is still trying to get back to form. His strikeouts are way down, however, the southpaw sat down seven in six innings against Seattle the last time out. He tossed his first quality start in three games in that outing.
This series finally wraps on Sunday. The Rangers have yet to announce their starter, but the Twins will go to their best option: Jose Berrios.
Berrios is having a very good year. He’s 9-5 with a 3.57 ERA and 1.147 WHIP in 90.2 innings. The youngster has had some ups-and-downs, but generally gives the Twins a chance to win. Minnesota is 9-6 when he takes the ball.
Who's Hot?
It’s hard to find many positives for the Twins right now. They’re looking more and more like the team that lead the league in losses last year rather than the team that was a first-place team much of the first half.
Since the break, Eddie Rosario has probably been the most productive Twins’ bat. He’s 14-for-48 with five walks and eight doubles.
In the bullpen, while it’s mostly been bleak, Matt Belisle has been great over the last month with 10 scoreless frames and just four hits and two walks.
Is Rougned Odor finally back for the Rangers? He’s batting. 255 in his last 24 games with 10 homers and 18 RBIs. The OBP is still low, but that’s par for the course for Odor. Odor has hit seven of his homers since the break. Joey Gallos is just one behind at six and is batting .250 in those 15 games. For him, that’s amazing.
Overall, the power is still there for Texas, but Adrian Beltre is the only Ranger hitting for average since the break.
Who's Not?
Miguel Sano carried the Twins for much of the first-half, but he’s been a flawed hitter since the break. He’s struck out a team high 25 times in 15 games and has a .220 average and .299 OBP. He has hit three homers, but has just one double, leaving him with a .390 slugging percentage.
Brian Dozier has been good on the power front with four homers and nine extra base hits, but he’s also struck out 22 times since the break. Max Kepler is hitting .186 in the last 16 games while Robbie Grossman is batting .209; though he does have 12 walks.
Going back a bit further, Jorge Polanco is batting .053 in the last month.
On the mound, the Twins have dealt away Brandon Kintzler leaving little left in a shallow pen. The Rangers moved Jeremey Jeffress back to Milwaukee which may be addition by subtraction. The righty struggled in Texas and had allowed four homers in his last eight appearances.
The trade of Jonathan Lucroy has opened more playing time for Robinson Chirinos, but he’s hitting .174 since the break. Nomar Mazara is also well below the Mendoza Line.
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