The Minnesota Twins hold the division lead in the American League Central and are looking to hold off the Cleveland Guardians, who they play on the road on Tuesday.
Minnesota Twins (-130, 8.5) vs. Cleveland Guardians
Joe Ryan gets the start on the mound on Wednesday and will look to overcome his road woes, posting a 4.68 ERA on the road with 2.2 home runs per nine innings on the road this season compared to a 3.77 ERA with 1.4 home runs per nine innings allowed at home this season.
Ryan spent much of August on the injured list and has allowed one run in each of his past two starts since returning, but overall has allowed at least three runs in five of his past seven starts with at least four runs in four of them.
While Ryan faces a Guardians offense that is last among the 30 MLB teams in home runs, they get reinforcements with Josh Naylor, who is second on the team in home runs, coming off the injured list after missing the whole month of August, a month in which only the Oakland Athletics scored fewer runs among American League teams.
On the mound for the Guardians will be Gavin Williams, who’s last start came against this same Twins team and he had to be taken out of the game after one inning on Thursday August 29, less than a week ago, due to knee pain.
Overall this season, Williams has pitched better than his 1-5 record would indicate with a 3.46 ERA and 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings, but has a tenancy to elevate his pitch count with 3.7 walks per nine innings to earn him a 4.00 fielding independent.
For the season, the Guardians entered Tuesday sixth in bullpen ERA, but since the All-Star Break the Guardians have ranked just 18th in bullpen ERA while the Twins are 19th in bullpen ERA in that span, which magnifies Williams’ knee issue and the fact that he has pitched five innings or fewer in eight of his last nine starts.
With the Twins second in the American League in runs per game since the All-Star Broke with 5.6 runs per game and leading the American League in home runs in that span, Wednesday’s matinee game sets up to feature lots of offense.
The Play: Twins vs. Guardians Over 8.5
