While the Twins can send staff ace Ervin Santana out to the mound today, they still are trying to figure out what their rotation will look like by the end of the week. We're just six weeks into the season, and the Twins have demoted Adalberto Mejia and Kyle Gibson to the minors because of their struggles.
Righthander Nick Tepesch started yesterday but did not look very good. He was foiled by Jorge Polanco's error that fueled a eight-run second inning for the Red Sox, but Tepesch could have made a pitch or two to get out of the inning.
But indications are that Tepesch will get the ball on Thursday against the White Sox in Chicago. In addition to the Polanco error, it was Tepesch's first game in over two weeks. So the Twins want to see what he does when he's back on a five-day preparation plan instead of sitting around waiting for a blowout to pitch in.
That leaves the Twins with a dilemma on Saturday, when they need another starter. The two candidates are Adelberto Mejia and Jose Berrios. Mejia is coming off of a poor outing for Class AAA Rochester, raising the possibility that Berrios gets the nod. He is scheduled to start today for the Red Wings in chilly conditions at Frontier Field. As of this writing, the stadium temperature is 36 degrees there.
So if the Twins decide to call up Berrios, he would pitch Saturday with an extra day of rest.
The Twins would prefer to leave Berrios in the minors to fine tune his pitching, but he has a 1.09 ERA after five starts and the Twins really don't have any better options right now. Stay tuned this week for rotation news.
When was the last time the Twins have played such an interesting game in early May?
Twins righthander Ervin Santana is 5-0 with an 0.66 ERA. Red Sox lefthander Chris Sale is 2-2 with a 1.38 ERA. You can't get a better matchup this early in the season.
