A pair of American League teams with playoff aspirations close out a series on the diamond in the Lone Star State. The Minnesota Twins are on the road as they play the finale of a three-game set with the Houston Astros Thursday night. Houston won the opening game of the series on Tuesday night, taking a 4-2 victory behind their ace and probable AL Cy Young winner. Will the Twins find a way to come up with a win in the finale or will the Astros keep on cruising along? This article was published prior to the middle game of the set at Minute Maid Park, which was slated for Wednesday night.
Minnesota was handcuffed in the opening game of this set and limped into Wednesday losers of four straight games. The Twins entered Wednesday’s action second in the AL Central, three games behind the Guardians for the division lead. In the AL wild card picture, the team was four games behind the Blue Jays and Mariners, who were tied for the final two playoff spots. On Tuesday, Minnesota finished with six hits as Max Kepler (RBI) was the lone player with two in the contest. Half of those six knocks came in the ninth inning, when the Twins tallied their two runs, but it was too little, too late. Aaron Sanchez (3-4) took the loss as he allowed two runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts over four innings of work.
Chris Archer is slated to take the mound for his 22nd start of the season here for the Twins. He comes in 2-6 with a 4.02 ERA, a 1.26 WHIP, 42 walks and 76 strikeo uts over 87.1 innings of work this year. Archer didn’t factor in the decision in his last start, which came Saturday at home against the Rangers. He threw five innings, allowing one run on three hits with one walk and five strikeouts in a game the Twins dropped 4-3 in 10 innings. In his last three starts, Archer is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP, two walks and 14 strikeouts over 14 innings of work. Archer makes his 10th career start against the Astros in this contest. He comes in 5-3 with a 2.67 ERA, a 0.855 WHIP, 14 walks and 59 strikeouts over 57.1 innings of work against them. Archer is 3-1 with a 2.90 ERA, a 0.807 WHIP, nine walks and 33 strikeouts over 31 innings in five career starts at Minute Maid Park.