Rightander Jose Berrios has had three consecutive starts in which he's failed to pitch more than five innings while giving up at least one home run. He showed signs of snapping out of his funk on Tuesday by holding the White Sox to one run over five innings in an outing that was affected by a rain delay. The Twins would like to see Berrios take off from there and finish the season strong.
Berrios enters Sunday 11-18, so a 15- win season is well within his reach, which would be more than enough to consider the season a success.
Here are some other notes as we get closer to the first ptich:
Righthander Michael Pineda will meet with team doctors today to discuss the soreness in his right knee. Pineda's rehabilitation following Tommy John surgery was going smoothly until he felt discomfort during a bullpen session last week while at Class AAA Rochester. He's now in the Twin Cities, trying to get to the bottom of the issue.
"Yeah, I'm happy because I was throwing the ball really good in Fort Myers and Rochester, too," Pineda said. "Everything is good and my arm feels great but right now I'm frustrated with my knee because I was almost ready to play here. I was so excited about it so we'll see what happens. Hopefully, nothing serious because I want to pitch."
The Twins signed Pineda to a two-year, $10 million deal, paying him $2 million this year to help him through rehab then hopefully benefiting from it next year by being a fixture in a rotation that includes Jose Berrios, Kyle Gibson and Jake Odorizzi.
He was on schedule to pitch for the Twins in September, but that is on hold now due to the knee problem.
Wilson better
Catcher Bobby Wilson might come back from his sore right ankle sooner than later.
"He's doing better than I thought he would be after 48 hours," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He's responded to treatment and put a lot more weight on that foot. We'll just have to see but I'm more encouraged now that it's going to be less than more whether that's 10 days, 12 days. I think we're still early in the process."
Wilson sprained his right ankle on Thursday when he stepped on a bat while running to back up first base.
Etc.
Outfielder Trevor Larnach, the Twins' first round pick in the June draft, has been named the organization's player of the week. He batted .391 for Class A Cedar Rapids with a home run, three RBI and six runs scored. Righthander Jhoan Duran, one of the players the Twins received from Arizona in the Eduardo Escobar trade, was named minor league pitcher of the week. He went 1-0 with a 0.66 ERA with three walks and 19 strikeouts in 132/3 innings.
Discussions are ongoing in regards to who will earn September callups. But Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey said the current plan is to call up a couple players on Sept. 1, the first day rosters can be expanded, then add a few more once the minor league season ends. Most of the Twins farm teams finish up on Sept. 3.
There were some rumblings that the Twins might promote outfielder Alex Kirilloff to Class AA Chattanooga - a second promotion this season. But Kirilloff will finish out the season at Class A Fort Myers.
A's
Nick Martini, LF
Matt Chapman, 3B
Jed Lowrie, 2B
Khris Davis, DH
Matt Olson, 1B
Stephen Piscotty, RF
Marcus Semien, SS
Ramon Laureano, CF
Josh Phegley, C
Chris Bassitt, RHP
Twins
Joe Mauer, DH
Logan Forsythe, 2B
Jorge Polanco, SS
Miguel Sano, 3B
Max Kepler, CF
Tyler Austin, 1B
Jake Cave, RF
Mitch Garver, C
Robbie Grossman, LF
Jose Berrios, RHP