Just when you think that the biggest issue facing the Twins and their pitchers is who’s going to start Friday night’s game against Kansas City — Liriano, Manship, Blyleven or Ron Davis — this thing called outdoor baseball bites the Twins in the butt and plays havoc with any kind of planning.

It remains to be seen whether Monday’s rainout is the only wrinkle thrown into the schedule during this week’s series in Detroit. If both games are played today, the Twins will put in a 10-hour workday and then have a good sense of how much the remaining games mean when they’re finished with Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander, who will be solid candidates for Rookie of the Year and Cy Young respectively.

Beat ‘em both and the Twins are tied for first with the weaker end of the Tigers’ rotation being thrown at them Wednesday and Thursday.  The Twins pretty much have to win 3 of 4 against Detroit, given that the Tigers aren’t likely to be swept by the White Sox and the Twins have another encounter scheduled with Zack Greinke.

A sweep would be hellacious, but you don’t talk out loud about such things. (That’s why people ask for a 6 at the blackjack table when they need a 7 to hit 21.)

I’m pretty much at a loss right now when it comes to figuring out how the Twins starting pitching would set up for the rest of the season, whether or not they can get through the next three days without rain messing with them even more. I mentioned to Ms. Baseball on Sunday — during the latest batch of Liriano troubles — that it wouldn’t bother me if Gardy started Jesse Crain on Friday to see how far he can go and them have a half-dozen arms ready to follow him. At the same time, though, Crain hasn’t given up a run in his last 15 games (15 innings, 10 baserunners, 9 strikeouts) and I can make a case for him being ready to pitch relief three or four times in these final seven games.

I could think that one out loud until your eyes glaze … and then follow up with wondering whether Gardy would start Blackburn or Duensing on three days of rest on Saturday against Greinke.

If those are meaningful decisions, it will mean that the Twins have done themselves well in Detroit, which is the issue of the moment. And for each big decision that Gardy would need to make, Jim Leyland will have to do the same for the Tigers.

Go away, rain. Let’s get at it.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.