The Houston Astros will play the Minnesota Twins three times this weekend.
The Astros and Twins will meet up three times in Daikin Park this weekend.
GameTimes and Starting Pitchers
Friday, 7:10PM CT: Chris Paddack (2-5, 3.53) vs. Colton Gordon (1-1, 5.11)
Saturday, 3:10PM CT: Joe Ryan (7-2, 2.96) vs. Hunter Brown (8-3, 1.82)
Sunday, 1:10PM CT: Simeon Woods Richardson (2-3, 5.74) vs. Brandon Walter (0-0, 1.64)
Houston and Minnesota already met three times this year between April 3 and April 6, with Houston taking two of three in the Twin Cities. In the series finale, Houston pitchers Ronel Blanco and Luis Contreras combined to allow seven runs on nine hits and four walks over the first four innings, but Houston’s offense did enough to keep the Astros in the game anyway. Josh Hader (1-0, 1.80) faced the minimum and earned the win in relief, striking out three over two innings (the ninth and 10th). Isaac Paredes led Houston’s offense with four singles. Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Christian Walker, and Brendan Rodgers had two hits each, including Alvarez’ first home run of the season.
He came in today smiling. And I’m like, ‘Dude, just relax! You’re gonna hit, you’ve always been a good hitter. Stop trying to hit so many homers and just concentrate on hitting hard line drives. Keep the game simple.’ — Joe Espada on Paredes
Overall, Houston is 48-44 in the regular season against the Twins, with a 5-1 postseason stinger. Although both have been around for over 60 years, they didn’t meet for the first time until 1997.
The Astros have been on a bit of a heater, going WWLWWWLLWW over their past 10, with an 89.8 percent chance at reaching the postseason, as calculated by baseball reference. Currently 4 1⁄2 games out front of the AL West-second (tied) Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners, Houston (38-30) is tied with the Toronto Blue Jays with the third-best record in the American League.
In Houston’s last series, they took two-of-three from the Chicago White Sox, closing their season series with three wins each. In the finale, Framber Valdez (7-4, 3.10) struck out 12 in five innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk. He placed 67-of-95 offerings over the plate. Shawn Dubin, Bryan King and Bryan Abreu each pitched a shutout innings, and Josh Hader (18, 1.55) earned the save despite allowing one run. Isaac Paredes (15) went deep, Yainer Diaz collected three hits, including a double, Jose Altuve hit a pair of doubles, and Jeremy Peña collected a pair of singles. Altuve’s second hit game him 2,300 for his career, 14 behind franchise-second Jeff Bagwell and 42 behind active hits-leader Freddie Freeman.
That’s why I try to pitch more to contact or try to get more groundouts and flyouts, and that way I last more. Unfortunately today there were some ground balls that were hit in places I didn’t want to. It was out of my control. — Valdez
With the win, Valdez becomes the fifth left-handed starter in franchise history to reach 75 wins. Bob Knepper (93-100), Wandy Rodriguez (80-84), Mike Hampton (76-50) & Dallas Keuchel (76-63) remain ahead of him.
The Twins, at 36-32 and eight games behind the AL Central Division leading Detroit Tigers, would currently inhabit the American League’s sixth seed going into the playoffs, which would match them up with the Astros in the wildcard round. They’ve had a more pedestrian time lately, going WWWLLLWLWL over their past 10 games. Baseball Reference for some reason has them at 15.4 percent to make the postseason.
Minnesota just lost two-of-three to the Texas Rangers, including a pair of games in which they gave up 16 runs. They were outscored 34-13 over the series. Bailey Ober (4-3, 4.40) took the loss after allowing seven runs on six hits and six walks over 4 2⁄3 innings in the final game of the set (and received death threats on social media as a result). Cole Sands allowed four runs in his inning of work, and only Willi Castro finished with more than one hit.