The Minnesota Twins (37-38, 1st AL Central) are on the road Friday to play the 1st of three games over the weekend against American League Central rival the Detroit Tigers (32-41, 3rd AL Central) at Comerica Park in the Motor City. Minnesota defeated the Boston Red Sox 5-4 on Wednesday which snapped a three-game losing skid for the Twins. Minnesota is first in the AL Central despite playing .493 baseball. Detroit defeated the Kansas City Royals 9-4 on Wednesday and the Tigers have won three of the last four but are four games behind front-running Minnesota. Minnesota will play without seven pitchers as well as position players Nick Gordon and Jorge Polanco. Detroit will play without nine pitchers as well as position players Akil Baddoo, Riley Greene and Austin Meadows.
Minnesota leads the American League Central thanks to strong performances on the mound. Minnesota is in the top five of four major pitching categories. The Twins are third in both WHIP at 1.19 and batting average allowed at .232, while fourth in Quality Starts with 35 and 5th in ERA at 3.76. Pablo Lopez has a team best 110 strikeouts and Joe Ryan is the leader in victories with seven. Minnesota will hand the ball to Kenta Maeda on Friday. This season the right-hander is 0-4 with an ERA of 9.00 and 14 strikeouts.
Minnesota has struggled at the plate, as the Twins are 24th in team batting average at .231 and 23rd in on base percentage at .310, while 17th in slugging percentage with .400. Minnesota has scored 322 runs which is only 18th. Byron Buxton and Joey Gallo are the co-leaders in home runs with 11 each and Mich ael A. Taylor has hit 10. Carlos Correa is the leader in RBI with 35 and Trevor Larnach is second with 31. Minnesota has hit 123 doubles, 8 triples and 95 home runs in 75 games.