He had a very rough stretch in the middle of the season, going 1-3 with an 8.07 ERA in six starts from August 6th through September 4th. The Royals will get the Twins best in Jose Berrios. I feel like people want a reason to believe in these previews, and the reason to believe in this one is that baseball is a funny game and weird things happen, so it’s possible the Twins don’t absolutely destroy about seven baseballs in this game. 287/.358/.527 against lefty starters this season and that includes games against actually good lefties. Need I remind you what the Twins do best offensively? The Twins have hit. Skoglund has allowed 17 home runs in 102 career innings. 424/.486/.545 line, so maybe the Royals and their righty power can do some damage in this one.Įric Skoglund is the guy the Royals have tabbed to take the last couple starts of the season in place of Jakob Junis. That’s held true in the big leagues, but in just 37 plate appearances, righties have crushed him to the tune of a. Between the big leagues and the minors, he’s been better against lefties actually, holding them to a. The sample is too small to make any real judgments, but that’s going to be a pitch for Royals hitters to watch for. His curve has actually been both a great weapon and a huge hindrance for him, generating a whiff rate of 43 percent, but also getting hit pretty hard, to the tune of a. In his short big league career, he’s gone with his sinker about 36 percent of the time and his four-seamer about 28 percent of the time and he throws hard enough that if he commands the ball, he should be fine. The ERA is shiny, but he’s allowed 23 hits in those 17 innings and three unearned runs, so there’s likely to be some regression quickly. Then he moved up to AAA where he posted a 2.15 ERA in 46 innings. He made four starts in high-A and allowed one run in 22.1 innings, so he went to AA where he posted a 2.57 ERA in 66.2 innings. He was solid in Rookie ball, then got the bump to A-ball and was solid there in 2018. He was undrafted and signed with the Twins just two years ago, likely as organizational depth. Randy Dobnak is one of those stories you root for in baseball. The Astros ended up tacking on later, but Hill saved Montgomery’s ERA and the Royals chance to come back in that moment. Montgomery started the sixth inning by giving up a walk and two singles to score a run and then the Royals committed an error to load the bases with nobody out. And he was helped immensely by Tim Hill in that last start. And now over his last two starts, he’s struck out just three batters in nine innings. He gave up five hits and walked five while striking out just one. The results ended up just fine with two runs allowed over five innings, but he was in trouble all game. It was a weird start for Mike Montgomery against the Astros his last time out. Getting on base isn’t the easiest thing against him, but once you do, it definitely gets easier. That’s been a big reason that his ERA and xFIP have such a big gap. 303/.371/.457 line with runners on in general. 321/.396/.522 line with runners in scoring position and a. While he’s striking out more than ever this season, he’s struggling in key situations. With the postseason basically a certainty for the Twins, they’re trying to figure out who will start that third game, so Gibson will keep getting opportunities to prove it’s him. He made one start after coming off the IL for ulcerative colitis. His last outing was out of the bullpen for the Twins as they needed some help, even with expanded rosters, to get through a full game after using a lot of relievers in their series with the Indians. It hasn’t been an especially great year for Gibson after a fantastic season in 2018, but he’s given the Twins some innings at the very least. Noted Royals killer and soon-to-be free agent Kyle Gibson takes the hill to start the series for the Twins. At least they have their bullpen figured out decently with some solid arms at just about every level of the game once the starter departs. Where they struggle is in the rotation, especially now that Michael Pineda is done for the year due to his suspension, so they’ll have to piece it together behind a resurgent Jose Berrios and a solid Jake Odorizzi. They’re not to 300 home runs just yet, but it’s only a matter of time as they’re within a handful with these 12 games to go. Both will be pretty heavily favored against the Twins, but the ability to hit the ball out of the park will give them a chance against anyone. They’ll win their 95 or so games and have the third best record in the American League and take on either the Yankees or Astros. The Twins still do have something to play for with a magic number of six, but their fate is pretty well determined at this point. They’ll knock four of them out this weekend. The Royals have nine games left and seven of them are with the Minnesota Twins.
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