Eduardo Escobar is on an odd, one that his manager hopes continues today. The utility man has hits in seven games this month, but he’s had more games of three or more hits (4) than games with just one (3). It adds up to a .348 average this month, and a .522 slugging percentage, enough to convince Paul Molitor to bat him fifth.
“We’ve talked about the middle of the lineup, how we kind of mix it up and change it every day Today, with [Chris] Herrmann catching [in place of Kurt Suzuki], we tried to find a five-hole guy, and I went with the hot hand,” Molitor said. “Hopefully he can keep it going out there today.”
He’ll face Chris Archer, which is not an easy assignment. Archer was one of the AL’s best pitchers in April, going four straight starts without an earned run and posting an 0.84 ERA. He hasn’t been the same guy in May, giving up 11 runs in his last three starts — that’s a 6.06 ERA — but Molitor assumes the Twins will see the good one today.
“He’s a charismatic guy out there on the mind. He’s got a lot of personality, and he’s one of the more talented younger pitchers in our game,” Molitor said. “He’s got a lot of things he can do to get people out. He can spin it, slow it down, it just makes for a tough at-bat.”
The Twins are playing for a sweep, their second of the season, before they head out on another road trip to Pittsburgh and Chicago. They’ll need to beat the rain to get it — it’s sunny at Target Field at the moment, but showers are expected late this afternoon.
Here are the lineups for the finale of this three-game series with Tampa Bay:
RAYS
Kiermaier CF
Forsythe DH
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Guyer RF
DeJesus LF
Cabrera SS
Franklin 2B
Wilson C
Archer RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Hunter DH
Mauer 1B
Plouffe 3B
Escobar LF
Herrmann C
Rosario RF
Hicks CF
Santana SS
Gibson RHP
Sign up for our Twins newsletter to get all of the updates sent to you daily.
La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
Former Twins reliever May set to sign with New York Mets
Maeda finishes second to Cleveland's Bieber for Cy Young Award
Preposterous Game 4 finish makes a winner of ex-Twin John Curtiss
Graterol lives up to Twins' World Series dreams -- for the Dodgers
