Even in a dismal season, the Twins have offered rays of hope to dedicated followers in 2013, and one of those will be put to the test Saturday night at Target Field.
Andrew Albers, who may seem to be the Twins pitching phenom they’ve needed for, oh, about six or seven seasons, brings his spotless record in a match-up against Chicago’s All-Star left-hander Chris Sale.
Albers, the subject of a nice profile by the Strib’s Chip Scoggin, is hard not to love: His fastball hovers around 86 miles per hour. He threw a curveball this week that registered 66 on the gun.
Ok, so maybe not the flame-throwing phenom the Twins need, but, dang, the kid’s been hart to hit so far. He has won two, allowing six hits and one walk while throwing 17 1-3 scoreless innings in his first two career starts.
Sale has been pretty tough lately too, as Yahoo! Sports points out, going for his third straight win.
Sale (8-11, 2.73 ERA) was mired in an 11-start stretch where he went 1-9 with a 3.23 ERA and received an average 1.96 runs of support before allowing three runs in 16 1-3 innings to win the last two.
As for the rest of the team, Fox Sports North notices that it is still having trouble with runners in scoring position.
The Star Tribune’s La Velle E. Neal III analyzes the move that sent Chris Colabello down to Rochester.
