It’s not that Detroit Tigers Manager AJ Hinch is greedy.
Well, maybe he’s a little greedy.
“We want to be a good team,” Hinch said. “And to be a good team you have to do everything.”
The tigers will look for another strong all-round performance as they take on the Minnesota twins on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis. Detroit aims to complete a sweep with three games.
Everything clicks for Tigers, which has won seven of its last eight matches and nine of 11. Detroit already has a series of sweeps this season.
Hinch said that his players have shown a great work ethic and is focused on the basics. That method often provides rewards, he said, for example, when Spencer Torkelson ripped a two-run Homer in the sixth round Saturday to meet the point in Detroit’s 4-0 victory.
“Delivering the big battle is obviously,” Hinch said. “(Torkelson’s) ball divorced us and gave us some breathing room. But it took the good bats before it to put ourselves in position. We continue to preach good bats, and that is a good message. And it is good that the players are all in.”
When the tigers look to continue a hot start, the twins are looking for solutions.
Minnesota has lost 11 of its first 15 games, including six of the last seven. The twins have struggled at the plate during much of the season.
The twin manager Rocco Baldelli suggested that Front Office and coaching staff could make changes involving staff and playing time if the poor games remain.
“You have to shock yourself sometimes and wake yourself up sometimes,” Baldelli said. “We might be pretty close to it because we have to play better baseball. …
“I think we can get there, where we have to make some adjustments, we have to do a few different things, try some guys in different places. It can be a way to shake it up a bit.”
The first shaking could come on Sunday. The twins reportedly demoted Jose Miranda to Triple-A St. Paul and activated Brooks Lee from the injured list on Saturday. Lee suffered a back injury during spring training but recently started a minor rehabilitation assignment.
Miranda strikes .167 to 12 matches and made a basement blunder in Saturday’s game. With the twins down with four runs in the eighth, Miranda led with a pinch-hit single. With one out, Christian Vazquez met a grounder that looked like a Fielder election force in second place, but UMP decided that the other bass man did not move the base and called Miranda Safe. Miranda did not realize that he was safe, started going from the field and was tagged out.
His demotion reportedly occurred about an hour after the match.
Tiger’s right-wing trader Casey Mize (2-0, 0.77 era) will make its third start. Mize beat 5 2/3 speechless innings against the Seattle Mariners in his season debut, and he held the New York Yankees to a four -round run in his second start. He went three and knocked out six in each start.
In seven career starts against Minnesota, Mize is 1-3 with a 5.12 era.
Twins right hand Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1, 5.59) will also make his third start. He gave up two runs in four rounds against Chicago White Sox in his season debut, and he allowed four runs on eight hits in 5 2/3 rounds against Kansas City Royals.
Woods Richardson has made three career starts against the tigers. He is 1-1 with a 3.24 era, and he has gone five and knocked out 12 in 16 2/3 rounds.
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