52-45 this season

The series has been won. Now all that remains is to keep the winning going. With a tie for first place, the Sox really need to step up their game. There cannot be any reliance on the competition to take down Detroit. The Sox’s fate lies in their hands and bats, and pitching.

This afternoon, Robin is sending out the following guys to make sure the Sox stay on task and keep winning:

Alejandro De Aza CF, Youk 3B, Big Donkey 1B, The King DH, Alex Rios RF, The Cuban Missile SS, The Cuban Tank LF,  Tyler Flowers C, Bacon 2B. 

Jake “Dirt Bag” Peavy will start for the Sox this afternoon. Kind of hard to believe, but Jake is making his 20th start of the season this afternoon. However, lately hasn’t been so good for Jake in terms of getting a win. Over his last nine starts, he is 1-6 with a 3.39 ERA and two complete games mixed in there.

Jake is suffering from lackofrunsupportitis. Over this stretch, he has gotten on average of 2.54 runs of support, including getting one run or less in four of those games.

Today is his eighth career start against the Twins. In his career, he is 2-3 with a 3.82 ERA. the last time he saw them was on June 25 and he lost that game allowing three runs on 10 hits in six innings.

40-57 this season

Ron Gardenhire will send out the following guys to try and get back in the win column and avoid the brooms:

Denard Span CF, Ben Revere RF, Dandruff Boy C, Josh Willingham DH, Justin Morneau 1B, Ryan Doumit LF, Brian Dozier SS, Alexi Casilla 2B, Jamey Carroll 3B. 

Nick Blackburn will start for the Twins this afternoon. His last start was a no decision against the PITA Royals. He lasted 6.2 innings in that game. Against the Sox, he is 9-7 with a 4.18 ERA in 19 games. Eighteen of his appearances against the Sox have been starts. This season, he has seen the Sox one time and is 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA.

Sox batters have done quite the damage against Blackburn. Of the regular Sox hitters, only The King and Big Donkey are hitting below .286 against Blackburn. With quite the high expected temps today, we should expect the Sox hitters to do more damage against Blackburn.

*Notes: Home is starting to be where the heart is? The Sox in their last 13 home games are 10-3. The team ERA during this span is 2.63 and there have been five saves recorded. Trevor Plouffe is out of the lineup again today. This is the fourth straight game he has missed with a bruised right thumb.