Game 110: Royals at Twins

First Pitch (CT): 12:40 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN/830 WCCO/102.9 The Wolf /Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe: Royals Review

After getting shutout by notorious ex-Twin Randy Dobnak last night, the Twins will try to get things back on track facing someone ever harder than a journeyman pitcher with a Triple-A ERA over 5: an anonymous lefty with an ERA just below 5.

The Twins looked like one of the league’s best offenses from June 1 onward, but have scuttled coming out of the All-Star Break and still have hit 0 home runs since then. Not exactly a good way to right the ship. It won’t be getting any easier with Byron Buxton on the IL for the second time this month and with the team scheduled to facing the grueling trio of Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, and George Kirby this weekend in Seattle. The Twins could have used the Buxton injury to bring a jolt to the lineup with one of their top 20 prospects crushing it at AAA, but instead we got the return of Tristan Gray who has a .566 OPS in St. Paul since being optioned. Oh and recently DFA’d backup catcher Alex Jackson is starting at first base.

Tom Pohlad and Jeremy Zoll say they expect to buy at the trade deadline which means they want to win, but it’s hard to believe there’s a scenario where Tristan Gray puts this team in a better spot than Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper, or even lower ranked players like Hendry Mendez, Gabriel Gonzalez, or Kyler Fedko. Gray had two big hits at the beginning of the year and has apparently carried that momentum to hold a roster spot hostage. He can’t really hit, makes Brooks Lee look like Gold Glover at short, and is a slow, bad baserunner.

It’s entirely possible Jenkins or Culpepper aren’t ready, but why not let them try? We know what Gray is and at 30 years old, he’s not getting any better. In the meantime, let’s at least try to scrape some runs across against a bad pitcher and sneak out of here at .500 and with another series win under their belts.

Go Twins, go!

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