Series preview: Cleveland Indians at Minnesota Twins

Team Jekyll and Hyde concludes their road schedule in 2014 with a trip to Minnesota to take on the Twins for the final time this year.

The Tribe tries to salvage a winning record on this road trip as they visit Minnesota to take on the Twins. They will need to win two of three to achieve a .500 record on this trip and sweep the Twins to finish the trip at 6-4. The sweep would also likely keep their faint, faint, faint playoff hopes alive.

Friday's game is at 8:10 PM (Bauer vs. Hughes)

Saturday's game is at 7:10 PM (House vs. May)

Sunday's game is at 2:10 PM (Kluber vs. Milone)

The season ending home stand starts on Monday as the Kansas City Royals visit for three. After a day off on Thursday, the final 2014 foe will visit, the Tampa Bay Rays next weekend.

Playoff Watch: Tigers at Royals, Phillies at A's, Mariners at Astros, Blue Jays at Yankees.

Team in a Box

Minnesota Twins		Offense		AL Rank	Pitching		AL Rank
2013 Record	65-87	Runs/Game	4.4	5th	Runs/Game	4.8	14th
AL Central	5th	OBP	323	4th	H/9	10.0	15th
Last 10	4-6	SLG	390	7th	BB/9	2.6	2nd
Last 30	10-20	Steals	95	6th	SO/9	6.5	15th

The Indians played the Twins just over a week ago, taking two of three, outscoring them 13-6, with Kluber and House notching the wins and Bauer taking the loss in the opener.

The Twins then lost two of three in Chicago, but just took two of three from the Tigers at home. Their offense awoke in the last two series, scoring 31 runs in the process. Of course, the Achilles heel of the team, the pitching staff, also allowed 31 runs.

On the season, the Tribe has taken nine of the sixteen matchups, scoring 72, while allowing just 53, good enough for a 0.637 Pythag.

Projected Roster

Pos	Player	Bats	PA	BA	OPS
C	Kurt Suzuki	R	477	292	737
1B	Joe Mauer	L	486	274	728
2B	Brian Dozier	R	561	237	749
3B	Trevor Plouffe	R	558	252	747
SS	Eduardo Escobar	S	440	273	716
LF	Jordan Schafer	L	114	298	751
CF	Danny Santana	S	388	324	844
RF	Oswaldo Arcia	L	369	231	760
DH	Kennys Vargas	S	195	292	789

C	Eric Fryer	R	76	214	591
OF	Chris Parmelee	L	262	255	692
OF	Eduardo Nunez	R	204	251	658
C	Josmil Pinto	R	181	218	719
IF	Doug Bernier*	R	466	280	744
OF	Chris Herrmann	L	55	173	391
OF	Aaron Hicks	S	193	214	617

*Stats in AAA

Both Escobar and Arcia are day to day, so Nunez and Parmalee likely will get some burn. Schafer also played for the Braves for the early part of this season and was awful, like 468 OPS in 93 PA awful. I've only listed his Twins stats above as he has played very well since coming over.

That offensive outburst in the past week includes a nice 285/339/480 hitting line. The guys doing the most damage are Arcia, Suzuki, Santana and Plouffe, who all have an OPS over 1000 in the past week. Arcia and Plouufe both have two homers in that span, out of the six they hit in those six games. Dozier and Vargas have been the coldest regulars, but Dozier awoke a bit against the Tigers in his last game.

Projected Staff

Player	Throws	ERA	IP	WHIP	K/9
Phil Hughes	R	3.56	194.2	1.140	8.1
Kyle Gibson	R	4.64	165.0	1.339	5.1
Ricky Nolasco	R	5.34	148.1	1.510	6.3
Tommy Milone#	L	4.23	117.0	1.402	5.6
Trevor May	R	7.71	35.0	1.857	8.7

Glen Perkins	L	3.65	61.2	1.184	9.6
Jared Burton	R	4.55	61.1	1.304	6.3
Brian Duensing	L	3.46	52.0	1.365	5.5
Casey Fien	R	3.94	61.2	1.151	7.3
Anthony Swarzak	R	4.42	77.1	1.422	5.1
Casey Thielbar	L	3.45	47.0	1.404	6.5
Ryan Pressly	R	2.52	25.0	1.360	5.0
Aaron Thompson*	L	3.98	52.0	1.442	8.8
Logan Darnell	L	8.14	21.0	1.667	8.6
Michael Tonkin	R	4.76	17.0	1.471	7.9
A.J. Achter*	R	2.38	72.0	0.944	8.6
Lestor Oliveros**	R	1.64	65.2	1.081	3.7

#includes stats with A's; *stats in AAA; **combined stats from AA/AAA

Hughes has been very effective in his past five starts. He has a 2.70 ERA, 0.845 WHIP (only 1 walk) and 8.8 K/9. He beat the Indians in one of those starts, back on August 21, allowing just one run in seven innings and fanning eight. That is his lone start against the Tribe this year.

May beat the Indians in the last series on September 9, giving up two runs in five innings, walking four and striking out three. He struck out 10 in his last start against the White Sox.

Milone hasn't pitched since September 2 when he didn't get out of the fourth against the White Sox. He has a 7.40 ERA since coming over from the A's. He had two excellent starts versus the Tribe last year.

It looks like we will miss closer Perkins as he had an MRI on his forearm/elbow/biceps yesterday. Burton or Fien likely will get the ninth inning duties. Swarzak and Perkins have given up 12 of the Twins past 31 runs.

On the Shelf