The Baltimore Orioles meet the Minnesota Twins in the first of a three-game series starting Friday night inside Target Field from Minnesota, Minnesota. They toss out the first pitch at 8:10 pm. Baltimore is playoff bound and they believe they can make a deep run come October. The Twins still have a slim shot of grabbing one of the AL Wild Card slots.
Bookmaker has installed Orioles - 175 ML.
To their credit, the Orioles have been able to bounce back from a couple of bad weeks of baseball. It looked like they were going to miss the playoffs about a month or so ago, but they rallied as a team and were finally able to clinch a playoff spot.
Their fanbase was able to take a deep breath and not worry about a historic collapse, which would have been hard to swallow. They have a ton of talent on their roster, and their lineup is stacked with several big-time power bats.
One player to watch heading into the playoffs will be 29-year-old right fielder Anthony Santander, who has crushed a team-high and career-high 44 home runs. He has also driven 101 runs, which is also a career-high. He has come into his own this season and is clearly defined as the face of the franchise going forward. The Orioles have hit a total of 228 home runs this season, and they bat .249 as a team.
They will hand the ball over to Cade Povich, who sports a mark of 2-9 and has really struggled during his rookie campaign. He has an ERA of just under six runs and has gotten roughed up in some of his recent outings.
The Twins are not a great team by any stretch of the imagination, and they do not have a lineup that would instill fear into the opposition, but they do not play hard, and they know how to play small ball.
They have a steady crop of hitters, and they are led on offense by slugging first baseman Carlos Santana, who has shown age is just a number. He seems to be getting better with each passing season. He has clubbed 22 home runs while driving in 68 runs on the season.
The Twins bat .247 as a team, and they have smacked a total of 179 home runs during the season. They will hand the ball over to Pablo Lopez, who has a record of 15-9 and has had a career year on the mound. He has an ERA of 4.11 and has fanned 190 hitters in 179.2 frames of work.
The Twins are 2-3 in their last five games and 2-3 in their last five games against the number. They are also 36-45 in their road games against the number. The totals have gone over in three out of their last five games and 40 out of their last 77 games at home. The Orioles are 3-2 in their last five games and 3-2 in their last five games against the spread. They are also 43-34 in their road games against the spread.
