Jose Berrios pitches 100th major league game as Twins play in Boston

The young right hander is looking for a turnaround to his recent struggles, this time against the defending World Champs.

September 4, 2019 at 9:57PM
(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

BOSTON -- The Twins are 34 games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 1970 season thanks to a 7-1 start to their 10-game road trip.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Jose Berrios (11-7, 3.57 ERA) pitches tonight (6:10 p.m., FSN) against lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (16-5, 3.97) at Fenway Park.

Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey said reliever Sam Dyson has returned to the Twin Cities because of a recurrence of soreness in his biceps, a malady for which he was on the injured list last month. Falvey said the Twins were "just trying to get out ahead of the problem."

Berrios has not been sharp in his past four starts, although he won Thursday in Chicago despite throwing four wild pitches.Tonight will mark his 100th major league appearance and his 99th start.

The Twins squeaked out a 6-5 victory on Tuesday night. They are 47-23 on the road this season with 12 remaining; the team record for most road victories is 51 in 1965.

Nelson Cruz hit his 35th home run last night, one behind Max Kepler for the team lead. There have been four 30+ home run trios in team history: Tom Brunansky (32), Gary Gaetti (31) and Kent Hrbek (34) in 1987; Bob Allison (32), Harmon Killebrew (49) and Tony Oliva (32) in 1964; Allison (35), Jimmie Hall (33) and Killebrew (45) in 1963; and Allison (30), Killebrew (42) and Jim Lemon (33) in 1959 when they were the Washington Senators. Eddie Rosario (27), Miguel Sano (27) and Mitch Garver (26) are still on pace for 30.

Cruz has hit at least 35 home runs in six consecutive seasons, the ninth player in history to do that; Alex Rodriguez did it for 11 consecutive seasons, Sammy Sosa 10, Jimmie Foxx 9, Rafael Palmeiro 9, Babe Ruth 7, Ralph Kiner 7, Adam Dunn 7 and Willie Mays 6.

Tonight's lineups:

TWINS

Max Kepler, RF

Jorge Polanco, SS

Nelson Cruz, DH

Eddie Rosario, LF

Miguel Sano, 3B

Jake Cave, CF

C.J. Cron, 1B

Jonathon Schoop, 2B

Willians Astudillo, C

BOSTON

Mookie Betts, RF

Rafael Devers, 3B

Xander Bogaerts, SS

J.C. Martinez, DH

Andrew Benintendi, LF

Brock Holt, 2B

Mitch Moreland, 1B

Christian Vazquez, C

Jackie Bradley Jr., CF

about the writer

about the writer

Phil Miller

Reporter

Phil Miller has covered the Twins for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2013. Previously, he covered the University of Minnesota football team, and from 2007-09, he covered the Twins for the Pioneer Press.

See More

More from Twins

card image

Robust competition is likely for righthander Roki Sasaki, whose agent suggests a “smaller, midmarket” team might be a good route to take, but the Los Angeles Dodgers are said to be the favorites to land him.

card image
card image