The Twins haven't won a series since the Astros were here nearly three weeks ago, so winning today would be a great help toward restoring his team after a rough month, Paul Molitor was saying before the game. That's largely up to Jose Berrios, who has three scoreless starts this season, but who lasted only four innings last week in New York.
"When you go through that time, time-and-a-half through the rotation and the innings are hard to come by for your starters, it beats you up a little bit, to be honest," Molitor said.
The Twins remain a little beat up, too. Miguel Sano is out of the lineup for a second straight day with a sore left hamstring, even though he feels a little better today. "It's a risk/reward thing — we think another day would probably be helpful," Molitor said. "It would at least minimize what he does and makes sure we don't [have] any chance to worsen it and then lose him for a longer period of time."
Byron Buxton plans to do some running on his broken toe today, the first real test of his pain tolerance. The Twins don't believe there is much chance of worsening the hairline fracture in his toe, and they hope to have some idea by the time they leave for Chicago on Wednesday night how soon he can return to center field. "If he has a good day today, we'll consider getting him back and doing some hitting over the next couple of days," Molitor said.
Until then, they'll continue using Max Kepler in center. Here are the lineups for the finale of the Reds' first series in Minnesota since 2001:
REDS
Winker RF
Peraza SS
Votto 1B
Gennett DH
Suarez 3B
Schebler CF
Duvall LF
Barnhart C
Blandino 2B
Mahle RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Rosario LF
Escobar 3B
Kepler CF
Grossman RF
Morrison DH
Adrianza SS
Castro C
Berrios RHP
