Game 86: Twins at Astros

First Pitch (CT): 7:10 PM
TV: Twins.TV
Radio: TIBN/830 WCCO/102.9 The Wolf /Audacy App
Know Yo’ Foe: Crawfish Boxes

After taking a series from the Colorado Rockies, the Twins are heading to Houston to face the Astros. An up-and-down season has Astros in a similar spot as the Twins: just below .500 and fighting to cement themselves in the playoff race. Also like the Twins, Houston has pretty much one good hitter who is among the best players in baseball (Byron Buxton/Yordan Alvarez) while the rest of the lineup is pretty suspect despite decent numbers as a team.

The Twins already took a series from the Astros in mid May but have been very good since then, going 22-12 while winning five straight series. The Twins, meanwhile, have gone 17-18 since their last matchup while winning four their past five series (and who counts the Dodgers anyway).

Tonight it’s Zebby Matthews vs Peter Lambert in a matchup of pitchers that makes you ask, “are either of these guys actually good?” We likely won’t get an answer but the parallels between these teams simply never end.

Roster Notes:

• Byron Buxton is out again with his recurring hip issue. The team is being optimistic but Buck is getting imagine done and more information will be known later. For now, he’s out and there’s hope he can avoid the IL.

• Should Buxton miss time, Alan Roden and top prospect Walker Jenkins just returned from their own IL stints. Kaelen Culpepper also returned, but all three are still having their workloads managed closely.

• Anthony Banda is expected to miss multiple months with a significant lat strain. It’s a disappointing development for an already bad bullpen. Yoendrys Gomez and Andrew Morris have been huge success stories, but there’s very little reliability behind those two.

Lineups