The Minnesota Twins had an opportunity to win three out of four at Tampa Bay earlier this month, but a couple of bullpen meltdowns sent them home losers of three of those four games. They will attempt to extract a bit of revenge starting on Tuesday night, as the Rays come to Target Field to start a three-game series.
The Twins scored only 12 runs in the four-game series in Tampa Bay that went from April 14 to April 17, but were still in a position to win. The Rays' starters pitched at least seven innings in each of those games, and held the Twins to a batting average of .234. The Twins got their offense somewhat on track against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday and Sunday, and they will look to continue that trend in this series.
The pitching match-up for today will feature Wade Davis (2-2, 2.73 ERA) for the Rays, and Francisco Liriano (1-3, 7.40) for Minnesota. In the previous series, Davis held the Twins to one run and four hits over seven innings in a 5-2 Tampa Bay victory. Liriano was the only member of the Twins' rotation to not pitch in the previous series against Tampa, but is coming off of his best start of the year and coming off of seven days rest thanks to his scheduled start against Cleveland being skipped because of Friday night's rainout at Target Field.
Justin Morneau returned to the lineup in the series against Cleveland, and the hope is that outfielder Delmon Young will be back for this series in some capacity as well, but no word on that has been given at this time.
First pitch for this one is set for 7:10 PM Central time, and you can check out the Game Thread provided by our friends at Twinkie Town for up to the minute discussion on tonight's happenings. Then, be sure to head back this way for the recap.