The last time the Minnesota Twins were swept at
home, they left for a West Coast road trip.
Minnesota recovered quickly and started the trip with two wins
against the Los Angeles Angels and finished 6-4 during the West
Coast swing through Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.
This time, the Twins will look to rebound while remaining at home
when they begin a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox
tonight.
Cleveland swept four games from thre Twins over the weekend to take
control of the American League Central. The feeling for Minnesota
after Sunday's 5-2 loss was comparable to a three-game sweep by the
Houston Astros Target Field at the end of May.
"I do think it had a similar feel in that we just couldn't muster
much and we had trouble containing," Twins manager Paul Molitor
said. "We did rebound last time and it's up to these guys and what
we can do here in terms of regrouping."
Minnesota was outscored 28-8 against Cleveland. The Twins (34-33)
are 2-6 on their 11-game homestand, and their 14-24 home record is
the worst among any team in the majors with a winning record.
Minnesota has won five of the eight games between the teams this
season and could use a strong finish to the homestand. The Twins
trail the Indians by just two games in the Central after holding at
least a share of the division lead since May 10.
But playing at home has flummoxed Minnesota. The high spot in the
standings has come with one of the best road records in the league
(20-9).
"I don't really know what it is here at home that causes us to lose
more games than we win," Sunday's starter Kyle Gibson said. "We
just haven't really been playing well here at the friendly
confines. So, we'll try to turn that around here in the next couple
games and we get to head right back to Cleveland, back to their
place and hopefully take a few from them there."
The White Sox are riding some momentum into the series after
winning two straight series. They lost 7-3 at Toronto on Sunday but
are 5-2 in their last seven games.
"We're swinging the bat a little better right now," Chicago manager
Rick Renteria said. "I think it's like anything, you get into
little grooves, and obviously, we're in a groove here for the last
seven or eight days. We've had some starts that have been pretty
good for us, too, so we're able to manage and get through a
situation where we can use some of our back-end guys."
Minnesota's Ervin Santana (8-4, 2.56 ERA) is tonight's starter and
is coming off one of his worst performances of the season in an 8-4
loss to Seattle on Wednesday.
He gave up a season-high nine hits and five runs in five innings.
The right-hander's standout season got on track in April with two
wins against the White Sox. He has allowed just three hits and no
runs in 15 innings against Chicago this season.
Santana is 10-8 with a 3.44 ERA in his career against the White Sox.
Chicago's starter, Derek Holland (5-6, 3.79), has made two
starts against Minnesota this season and lost both. He has
surrendered 10 runs -- five earned -- in 11 innings.
In 10 career starts against the Twins, the left-hander is 2-5 with
a 4.33 ERA.
Chicago has scored 46 runs over the past seven games, averaging 6.6
runs per game in that span. Jose Abreu is hitting .416 (12-for-29)
in his last seven games, Melky Cabrera is hitting .425 (17-for-40)
in his last 10 games while Avisail Garcia is hitting .433
(13-for-30) in eight games against Minnesota this season.
"We're going to take every positive that we can out of every game
that we play," Renteria said. "And I think that, to this point,
we're very happy. This is the second series that we've won, and
it's been a while since we've won two series in a row, so we're
very happy with that."
The White Sox placed center fielder Leury Garcia on the 10-day
disabled list on Monday with a sprained finger on his left hand.
Chicago will make a roster move before Tuesday's series opener.
Tonight's game can be heard on Good Time Oldies 1060 with the Pre-Game Show at 6:35.
