It took until the 10th game of the season for the Minnesota Twins to win their first game of the 2016 season. They started the 2017 campaign a bit differently with back-to-back wins over the Royals and will have a chance for another series win over the weekend when they head to the Windy City to take on the rebuilding Chicago White Sox.
This series will be contested from Friday, April 7, 2017 through Sunday, April 9, 2017 at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago.
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Pitching Matchups
The weather has already completely thrown off the White Sox’s schedule here in the season’s first week and that has shaken up the pitching staff.
For now, the Sox figure to send Derek Holland, Miguel Gonzalez and Jose Quintana to the mound over the weekend against a Twins’ team that will be responding with Phil Hughes, Adalberto Mejia and Ervin Santana.
Friday’s match-up features a pair of big league veterans, each having something to prove in their respective outing. For Hughes, that something is healthy more than anything. He’s coming off surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome. He was 1-7 with a 5.95 ERA in 12 games spanning just 59 innings last year.
If healthy, the Twins expect him to revert back to the pitcher that gave them a mid-3 ERA and 16 wins in his first season in Minnesota, but his spring told a different story as he was prone to the long ball.
Holland, meanwhile, has pitched to a 4.91 and 4.95 ERA in abbreviated seasons the last two years with Texas after showing a ton of promise before an injury riddled 2014.
In the second game of this series, the Twins will turn to Mejia who made one start last year, his major league debut, giving up a pair of runs and five hits in 2.1 innings. He pitched well this spring and touched 95 on the radar gun.
He has more upside than the Sox’s counterpart, but Gonzalez despite mediocre stuff has consistently outperformed expectations. He pitched to a 3.73 ERA last year after the Orioles released him and is 44-41 in his career with a 3.80 ERA. He’s pitched to a sub-4 ERA in four of his five big league seasons.
While both teams’ turn to their back end starters in the first two games of the series, the Sunday afternoon showdown figures to feature each team’s ace.
Quintana is the better of the two starters for Sunday, but Santana had the better season debut. He pitched seven innings, giving up one runs, two hits and two walks against the Royals. Quintana had his start postponed a day and gave up six runs, including three home runs, to the Tigers. While he’s been a consistent performer for the Sox for years, he’s been hit-or-miss against the Twins, going 6-6 with a 4.39 ERA in 18 starts.
Who's Hot?
Tyler Saladino had a monster Spring Training for Chicago, earning the start at second base on Opening Day.
The 27-year old utility infielder played in 19 games, batting .365 with four home runs, 10 RBIs and a .431 OBP. He went 2-for-5 on opening day as well, scoring a run. The strong play goes back to last season, too. He hit .301 in the second half of the year and batted .344 in September.
For the Twins, the entire pitching staff is doing very well. In two games, they’ve allowed just two runs. Santana and Hector Santiago both had good starts, but the bullpen has delivered as well, throwing six scoreless innings, allowing just two total base runners—one walk and one hit—while striking out six.
Who's Not?
Byron Buxton is a former No. 1 prospect in all of baseball. He’s a five-tool talent that has struggled to find himself at the big league level, but seemed to finally break out with a very strong September last year.
Unfortunately, Spring Training numbers and September are the two times in the baseball calendar where performances can be the hardest to judge.
Nevertheless, the Twins were counting on the talented centerfielder to be a key part of this rebuilding franchise, but he’s gotten off to a slow start with six strikeouts in the first two games of the season. It’s early and his 1-for-10 start isn’t that big of a deal, but the fact he’s seeing the ball so poorly right now is very discouraging and doesn’t bode well for the Sox series.
Something similar can be said about Tim Anderson and Cody Ashe, the Sox shortstop and designated hitter each struck out three times in Chicago’s season opener.
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