For the third consecutive day, a former Twins lefthander at Rochester has been granted another chance with the major-league team.
This time it's Ryan O'Rourke, who posted a 1.93 ERA in the bullpen with the Class AAA Red Wings, getting the call. O'Rourke follows Andrew Albers, who was added Thursday, and Pat Dean, summoned on Friday. Albers, who pitched six innings in the second game of Thursday's doubleheader and allowed five runs on 11 hits, was designated for assignment to make room for O'Rourke.
O'Rourke has a career 5.83 ERA in two stints with the Twins over the past two seasons, walking 20 and striking out 29.
"After talking with the Triple-A staff, Ryan was the guy they recommended," manager Paul Molitor said. "He's been stretched out a little bit more than just being a left-handed specialist. … He's fresh and I know I can get a couple of innings out of him."
The Twins' bullpen is a mess at the moment, of course, because the starting rotation has been terrible lately, and the weather's not helping, either. The Twins have only three quality starts in 12 August games, and their starters have gone a total of 10 innings in the past three games, two of which were played Thursday thanks to Wednesday's rainout. That's 17 innings picked up in the past two days by the pen, a situation made worse by the sudden injuries to Trevor May, Tommy Milone and Buddy Boshers.
Tyler Duffey can help straighten things out tonight by repeating his performance from last Monday: One run over six innings. Facing the Royals gives him a reasonable chance, considering that until Friday's 7-3 victory, they had scored seven or more runs in a road game only once in their past 32 games.
Here are the lineups for tonight's 6:10 p.m. game:
ROYALS
