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Minnesota Twins Host Sabathia And New York Yankees
Ten games are on Thursday's MLB betting slate, including the start of a 4-game series at Target Field between the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. The first pitch is slated to be thrown at 5:10 p.m. (PT), and there will be live coverage of the game on WWOR and FOX Sports North.
The Yankees are still coasting right now, as they are comfortably in the playoffs. They've got a 9 ½-game cushion on postseason safety 120 games into the season, so barring a collapse of epic proportions, they'll once again be in the second season.
The question is whether or not New York will hold off the Boston Red Sox for the AL East crown, and most likely the top seed in the American League side of the playoffs.
The other top question right now in the Bronx is whether CC Sabathia is going to win the AL Cy Young Award for the second time in his career. Sabathia arguably got hosed out of the award last year when he went 21-7, and he'll have yet another chance to try to log his 17th win of this year on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for Sabathia, this is going to be his third attempt at 17 wins. He was lit up for seven runs in six innings against the Boston Red Sox in a 10-4 loss a week and a half ago, and last Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays hit five solo home runs off of him in a 5-1 loss.
Needless to say, this isn't what we've come to expect out of Sabathia. He is still 16-7 on the campaign, and he has a 2.93 ERA in spite of his back to back iffy starts. Batters are still only hitting .241 against him, and as a result, he has a WHIP of 1.14.
Sabathia threw seven shutout innings and struck out six against the Twins when he faced them in April, but his bullpen blew the game.
The man that started that day for manager Rod Gardenhire is also going to be on the mound on Thursday night. Brian Duensing allowed four runs in seven innings but was bailed out by his pen to avoid taking the loss in the Bronx.
Just like Sabathia, Minnesota's southpaw has fallen upon rough times of late. He has lost three in a row and has gotten absolutely no help from his offense either. The Twins have only scored two runs total in Duensing's last three starts.
For the season, the lefty is 8-11 with a 4.53 ERA. Batters are knocking him around to the tune of a .288 batting average, which is 41 points higher than last season when he had a 2.62 ERA and mostly pitched in relief.
Duensing has allowed at least five runs in three of his last five starts, and if that remains the case against the Yankees and their offense, which is averaging an MLB best 5.40 runs per game, it could be a long game against Sabathia.
This has definitely been a series that has belonged to the Yankees historically. They are 8-1 in their last nine clashes here in Minnesota, including going 5-1 in their two series here at Target Field last year. To make matters worse, the Twins are just 19-59 in their last 78 clashes against the Bronx Bombers.
Isolated storms are expected at Target Field on Thursday night, but they shouldn't be a huge problem. Temperatures should be nice in the high-70s around the time of the first pitch, and winds should be light around 10 mph out of the south.
Ten games are on Thursday's MLB betting slate, including the start of a 4-game series at Target Field between the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins. The first pitch is slated to be thrown at 5:10 p.m. (PT), and there will be live coverage of the game on WWOR and FOX Sports North.
The Yankees are still coasting right now, as they are comfortably in the playoffs. They've got a 9 ½-game cushion on postseason safety 120 games into the season, so barring a collapse of epic proportions, they'll once again be in the second season.
The question is whether or not New York will hold off the Boston Red Sox for the AL East crown, and most likely the top seed in the American League side of the playoffs.
The other top question right now in the Bronx is whether CC Sabathia is going to win the AL Cy Young Award for the second time in his career. Sabathia arguably got hosed out of the award last year when he went 21-7, and he'll have yet another chance to try to log his 17th win of this year on Thursday night.
Unfortunately for Sabathia, this is going to be his third attempt at 17 wins. He was lit up for seven runs in six innings against the Boston Red Sox in a 10-4 loss a week and a half ago, and last Friday, the Tampa Bay Rays hit five solo home runs off of him in a 5-1 loss.
Needless to say, this isn't what we've come to expect out of Sabathia. He is still 16-7 on the campaign, and he has a 2.93 ERA in spite of his back to back iffy starts. Batters are still only hitting .241 against him, and as a result, he has a WHIP of 1.14.
Sabathia threw seven shutout innings and struck out six against the Twins when he faced them in April, but his bullpen blew the game.
The man that started that day for manager Rod Gardenhire is also going to be on the mound on Thursday night. Brian Duensing allowed four runs in seven innings but was bailed out by his pen to avoid taking the loss in the Bronx.
Just like Sabathia, Minnesota's southpaw has fallen upon rough times of late. He has lost three in a row and has gotten absolutely no help from his offense either. The Twins have only scored two runs total in Duensing's last three starts.
For the season, the lefty is 8-11 with a 4.53 ERA. Batters are knocking him around to the tune of a .288 batting average, which is 41 points higher than last season when he had a 2.62 ERA and mostly pitched in relief.
Duensing has allowed at least five runs in three of his last five starts, and if that remains the case against the Yankees and their offense, which is averaging an MLB best 5.40 runs per game, it could be a long game against Sabathia.
This has definitely been a series that has belonged to the Yankees historically. They are 8-1 in their last nine clashes here in Minnesota, including going 5-1 in their two series here at Target Field last year. To make matters worse, the Twins are just 19-59 in their last 78 clashes against the Bronx Bombers.
Isolated storms are expected at Target Field on Thursday night, but they shouldn't be a huge problem. Temperatures should be nice in the high-70s around the time of the first pitch, and winds should be light around 10 mph out of the south.
Thank you, Bum! 
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