Lose five, win five. Lose three, win two.
That’s been the track the last 15 games for the Minnesota Twins (11-10), who now hit the road for a three-city, 10-game road trip through Detroit, Cleveland and Boston.
The first stop tonight is at Comerica Park to face the Tigers (13-10), where reigning MVP Miguel Cabrera is on a hot streak, hitting .420 with 15 RBIs in his last 12 games.
In the season-opening series between these two teams, Minnesota took two out of three from the Tigers at Target Field … and followed that up by winning two of three from another 2012 playoff team, the Baltimore Orioles.
While there’s still a full five months to go in the season, Twins fans have to be encouraged with the effort so far. Minnesota has an opportunity to finish above .500 in April for the first time since 2010 (15-8).
It would also be the first time the Twins would finish above .500 in a given month, stretching back to June of 2012 (14-13).
Three keys to the Twins success in April include the hitting of Joe Mauer (now at .302, although he’s in a four-game hitless streak), the pitching of starter Kevin Correia (3-1, 2.23 ERA) and the decision to switch Brian Dozier (.258) to the leadoff spot instead of rookie Aaron Hicks (.118) — although Hicks is coming around.
Tonight, Mike Pelfrey (2-2, 7.94) is on the mound for Minnesota, against Detroit’s Max Scherzer (2-0, 4.13).
The rest of the series looks like this:
Tuesday (6:08 p.m.): Vance Worley (0-3, 6.38) vs. Justin Verlander (2-2, 1.95).
Wednesday (12:08 p.m.): Scott Diamond (1-2, 4.32) vs. Anibal Sanchez (3-1, 1.34).
