Game Thread: Twins at Pirates, 8/5/20

The Pittsburgh Pirates host the Minnesota Twins tonight in the first of two home games against their AL Central counterpart.

The Pirates have lost six straight games. With a record of 2-9 on the season, they are currently the worst team in Major League Baseball.

Some roster news: Nick Burdi was placed on the 45-man IL as it was reported that his elbow “just didn’t feel right”. The team is still gathering more information on the injury. Utility man JT Riddle was added to the active roster.

Trevor Williams will take the bump for the Pirates. In his first two starts, he has given up a total of five earned runs over 8.1 innings. He is 0-2 on the season. Interestingly enough, Williams has seen an uptick in strikeouts early on this season as his K rate sits at 23.1 percent. On the flip side, he has also walked more batters than usual as his BB rate is 10.3 percent. It will be interesting to see how he fares against the powerful Twins tonight.

For those Twins, right-hander Randy Dobnak gets the start. In two starts this season, Dobnak has allowed one earned run over nine innings. Sitting in the low-90s, Dobnak is a sinker-slider pitcher who generates a ton of ground balls (68 percent). This may bode well for him tonight against the light-hitting Pirates.

Here are the lineups.

TWINS

Max Kepler, RF

Jorge Polanco, SS

Nelson Cruz, DH

Eddie Rosario, LF

Jake Cave, CF

Luis Arraez, 2B

Mitch Garver, C

Marwin Gonzalez, 1B

Ehire Adrianza, 3B

Pirates

Adam Frazier, 2B

Kevin Newman, SS

Josh Bell, 1B

Colin Moran, DH

Bryan Reynolds, LF

Gregory Polanco, RF

Erik Gonzalez, 3B

Cole Tucker, CF

Jacob Stallings, C

First pitch is at 7:05.