Wednesday’s rainout means the Twins and Indians will play two today at Target Field. The first game starts at 12:10 p.m. and features a pitching matchup of Kyle Gibson against Carlos Carrasco.
Game 2 of the doubleheader starts at 6:10 p.m. Starting for the Twins is a new name and face, Aaron Slegers. The 6’10” right-hander was 13-4 with a 3.18 ERA in 21 starts for Triple-A Rochester. He had 97 strikeouts and 27 walks in 130 1/3 innings this season.
Twins' tallest players:
6-11 Jon Rauch
6-10 Aaron Slegers
6-9 Alex Meyer
6-8 Mike Smithson
6-7 Michael Tonkin
6-7 Mike Pelfrey
6-7 Walt Bond— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) August 17, 2017
Left-hander Ryan Merritt is starting the second game for Cleveland. His only other start this season came against the Twins at Target Field where he allowed 3 runs on 7 hits in 4 innings.
Cleveland won that game and is a perfect 8-0 at Target Field this season.
Entering the day, the first-place Indians are 6 games ahead of the Twins in the division. Their lead will be 4, 6 or 8 games by the end of today. The Twins are still only 1 game out in the Wild Card race.
Minnesota, now in the midst of playing seven games in five days, will start Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios and Bartolo Colon against the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday-Sunday.
The Twins then play the White Sox five times Monday-Thursday next week, including a doubleheader on Monday. Deitrich Enns and Dillon Gee are scheduled to start Monday’s games.
