The Minnesota Twins (49-40) moved to within 4 ½ games of the Kansas City Royals for the top spot in the American League Central standings with a resounding victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday. The streaking Twins will look to cut that deficit even further when they square off with the Oakland Athletics (41-50) in Game 1 of their three-game series this coming Friday.
Read on below for an in-depth breakdown of this AL matchup and while you’re at it, you can also check out our 2015 MLB All-Star Game preview.
The Minnesota Twins headed to the All-Star break with momentum on their side after recording an emphatic 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday. Kyle Gibson won his fourth straight start, hurling seven strong innings, and rookie Miguel Sano hit a two-run homer to lead the Twins to their third consecutive win.
[sc:MLB240banner ]The Twins will look to keep the winning streak going when they take on the A’s this coming Friday. Starting for Minnesota in the series opener is Ervin Santana (0-0, 6.00 ERA). He’ll be making just his third start of the year after serving a lengthy 80-game suspension because of the use of a performance-enhancing drug.
He was rocked in his last start against the Tigers, allowing six runs on eight hits in just 4.0 innings of action. He did not factor in the decision as Minnesota pulled off the 8-6 victory. It was a far cry from his performance in his season debut against the Royals where he surrendered just two runs on three hits in 8.0 innings of work.
With Santana still a big question mark at this point, the onus is on the Minnesota offense to pick up the scoring slack against Oakland. The Twins are currently 10th in the majors in RBIs with 363 to their name. Expected to lead Minnesota’s offense in this game is Brian Dozier. He is 2-for-5 (.400) in his career against Oakland ace Sonny Gray with one RBI. The second baseman leads the Twins in homers (19) and RBIs (50) this season.
Oakland stretched its unbeaten run to two games with a 2-0 victory over Cleveland on Sunday. Sonny Gray (10-3, 2.04 ERA) was spectacular for the A’s in this ballgame as he allowed just three base runners in this two-hit shutout. Thanks to his third career shutout, Gray lowered his AL-best ERA to just 2.04.
Oakland will look to sustain the momentum of this huge win when it takes on the Minnesota Twins this coming Friday. The A’s will fancy their chances of doing just that as they have once again lined up Gray as their starter in this game.
Gray is 2-0 with a 5.40 ERA in two career starts against the Twins. The A’s have won four of their last five games with Gray as their starter. It’s interesting to note, however, that Gray has struggled in his last two home starts for the A’s. He is 0-1 in his last two outings at O.co Coliseum, allowing a combined seven earned runs in 12 innings of action.
Expected to lead the Oakland offense in this matchup is the red-hot Stephen Vogt. He leads the A’s in homers (14) and RBIs (56) this season. He delivered the killer blow in Oakland’s 2-0 win against Cleveland, blasting a two-run homer off Corey Kluber.
