After finding another new, creative, soul-crushing way to lose a baseball game on Friday night, the Minnesota Twins will attempt to bounce back on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
On Friday night, the Twins got seven outstanding innings from right-hander Scott Baker, and took a 5-0 lead into the eighth inning of action, but the bullpen imploded again, allowing the Angels to score six runs in the final two innings and ultimately go home with a 6-5 victory.
To make matters worse, scheduled starter Francisco Liriano was scratched from his start this evening due to soreness in his left shoulder, and relieve Joe Nathan is experiencing some tenderness in his elbow, which is likely going to result in a trip to the disabled list. No word yet on who will be brought up from Rochester to replace Nathan, if for no other reason than I'm not sure that Rochester actually has anybody left to send to Minnesota at this point.
Taking Liriano's place on the mound will be young Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak has made one start this season, back on April 28 against the Tampa Bay Rays. He allowed five runs in 5.1 innings pitched in the Twins' 6-1 loss. Swarzak's two other appearances for the Twins this season have been in a relief capacity, and overall this season for the big club he has a record of 0-2 and an ERA of 7.71.
The Angels will counter with right-hander Jered Weaver (6-4, 2.35 ERA). Weaver got off to a smoking hot start in 2011, winning his first six starts while fashioning an ERA of 0.99. However, he then proceeded to lose his next four decisions, and got a no-decision in his last start, the Angels' 5-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics back on Monday.
First pitch from Target Field is scheduled for 6:10 PM Central time, weather permitting. You can follow all of the in-game action via the Game Thread with our friends at Twinkie Town, and then come back here when things are over to get a recap of all of the night's action.