The Minnesota Twins (45-46, 2nd AL Central) return from the Major League Baseball All-Star Game break on Friday to play game one of their three game series on the road at Oakland Coliseum against the Oakland Athletics (25-67, 5th AL West). Minnesota was swept in a three-game series by the Baltimore Orioles prior to the All-Star Game break and was knocked out of first place in the American League Central. Oakland was swept by the Boston Red Sox in a three-game series prior to the break and the Athletics have lost four straight. Minnesota will play without six pitchers as well as position players Jorge Polanco, Royce Lewis and Nick Gordon. Oakland will play without six pitchers as well as position players Ramon Laureano, Carlos Perez, Manny Pina and Esteury Ruiz.
The Minnesota Twins are just a half game behind first place in the American League Central thanks to solid performances on the mound. Minnesota is in the top three in four major pitching categories. The Twins are first WHIP at 1.16, second in both Quality Starts with 46 and batting average allowed at .228, while 3rd in team ERA at 3.68. Joe Ryan is the leader in victories for Minnesota with eight and Pablo Lopez has a team best 138 strikeouts. As of the time of publication of this article, Minnesota had not released the name of its starting picture for Friday's match up with Oakland.
Minnesota continues to struggle at the plate as the Twins are 25th in team batting average at .232, 20th in slugging percentage with .400 and 25th in on base percentage at .309. Minnesota has scored 380 runs which is 24th in baseball. By ron Buxton and Joey Gallo each have 15 home runs to lead Minnesota and Max Kepler is third with 12 home runs. Carlos Correa is the leader in RBI with 38 and Buxton is second with 34. Minnesota has hit 150 doubles, eight triples and 150 home runs in 91 games.