Free-Falling Twins Face off with AL Leading Tigers

The Minnesota Twins are in free-fall; the team is 2-11 since June 12th, and the competition doesn’t get easier with a road trip out to Detroit to play the American League leaders, the Tigers. The Twins picked a good time as any to play the top team in the AL Central, since they are only playing .500 ball in their past few series. Dropping games to the Athletics and Pirates while losing series to the Rays and Reds over the same stretch, Minnesota has struggled. These Tigers are still incredibly dangerous, especially with their high-powered pitching duo of Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize leading them. Both pitchers are probable starters over the weekend series. Casey Mize has an ERA of 2.88 with a 7-2 record. He’s only allowed three or more runs in a start three times this season. The good news for the Twins is they piled on four runs in Mize’s start at Target Field on April 13th as part of a 5-1 Twins victory. Skubal is another story. Minnesota dodged a matchup with him in the first series, but he’s been a machine on the mound this year. His ERA has been below three since April 8th, and even touched below two earlier this month. He currently sits at 2.29. He’s been ringing batters up all year with six or more strikeouts in 14 of 16 starts and double-digit strikeouts in four contests. The Twins will need to be at their best to get the better of these two.

Trevor Larnach will be relied on to continue his output from the Mariners series. Over the first three games, he put up a .500 on-base percentage and a home run. Driving up the Tigers' pitch counts will be key, which he did exceptionally, drawing a walk in all three games. Carlos Correa also found his swing. He’s currently on a five-game hit streak, and over those games, he's batting .474, a marked improvement for the 30-year-old shortstop.

One man the Twins need to see improvement from is starting pitcher Bailey Ober, who is scheduled to start Saturday opposite Mize. He has only had two quality starts since May 1st, with his last one coming back on May 25th. A quality start is considered finishing six innings while allowing no more than three runs. In May, Ober’s pitch count didn’t allow him to go the full six innings, but he kept his runs allowed down, only allowing three earned runs once in May. Yet in June, Ober has seen his ERA skyrocket by allowing at least four earned runs in all four of his starts and surrendering a staggering seven earned runs twice, including his last start against the Mariners. Minnesota doesn’t need Ober to go seven shutout innings, but the return of the man who could go five innings, only allowing one or two runs, is imperative to their future success.

Riley Greene leads the bats for the Tigers. His .295 average, 17 home runs, and 61 RBIs are all suitable for the top 20 in the MLB. He’s also strikeout-prone, currently sitting at 102 strikeouts, and the Twins need to take advantage. He’s coming in hot, hitting .500 over his last four games, including a four-hit game against the Athletics. Gleyber Torres plays Robin to Greene’s Batman, hitting .281, and enters the game on a 10-game on-base streak. The Twins are in for a test in Detroit, but after the pitching staff put together a shutout Wednesday against the Mariners, a successful weekend in Detroit could go a long way to proving there is light at the end of this losing tunnel.