Reigning American League Player of the Week Jake Odorizzi will take the mound when his Minnesota Twins begin a seven-game homestand on Friday night against the Detroit Tigers at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Odorizzi (4-2, 2.78 ERA) hasn’t allowed a run in his past two starts, tossing six two-hit innings while striking out eight in a 7-3 victory over the Yankees on Saturday in New York after allowing just four hits over seven innings of a 1-0 win over the visiting Houston Astros on April 29.
He became the first Twins pitcher to be named AL Player of the Week since Francisco Liriano earned the honor for the week ending May 8, 2011.
“Very nice honor and well deserved,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told MLB.com. “I don’t know if he could throw the ball any better than he has this week. He’s had some starts before that that were also very good.”
In his past four starts, Odorizzi is 4-0 with a 1.11 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings. He has a 3-1 record and 3.77 ERA in eight career starts against the Tigers.
Tyson Ross (1-4, 5.34 ERA), who gave up five runs on seven hits in 1 1/3 innings in a 15-3 loss to Kansas City on Saturday, will make his second start of the season against the Twins. Ross, who is 0-4 with a 5.30 ERA in six games and four career starts against Minnesota, took the loss in a 4-3 setback to the Twins on April 13 at Target Field when he allowed four runs on five hits and four walks in six innings.
Detroit, which comes in off a 13-0 home drubbing by the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday afternoon, will be facing a Minnesota team that is coming off an impressive three-game sweep at Toronto. The Twins outscored the Blue Jays 20-1 and closed out the series with a 9-1 victory on Wednesday night, outhitting Toronto 18-2 in the process.
The Twins are 11 games over .500 (23-12) for the first time since May 31, 2015. Minnesota’s 64 home runs and .495 slugging percentage are the highest marks in team history through 35 games.
“If you’re not having fun watching this team, I don’t know what you’re doing,” said Kyle Gibson, who struck out a career-high 11 batters over six innings in Wednesday night’s win.
Jorge Polanco, who hit for the cycle in a 10-4 loss at Philadelphia on April 5, had his second five-hit game of the season on Wednesday and leads the American League with a .344 average while C.J. Cron went 4-for-5 with a homer and two RBIs, the sixth four-hit game of his career. The Twins also got home runs from Jonathan Schoop and Eddie Rosario who leads the AL with 13 homers.
Detroit was swept by the Twins in an abbreviated two-game series in early April. The first game of that series was snowed out and will be made up as part of a split day-night doubleheader on Saturday.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said his team must move on quickly from Thursday’s lopsided loss to the Angels, who banged out 16 hits (including five home runs).
“They pounded the ball,” Gardenhire told the media. “They knocked us around pretty good. … We’ve got four games in three days in Minnesota against a good hitting ballclub. We’ve got to regroup and bounce back.”