On The Horizon: Cubs vs. Twins series preview

I am expecting a huge invasion of Twins fans at Wrigley Field for this series. First, the Twins have not played at Wrigley since 2009, so for any Twins fans who wanted to see their team play at Wrigley, it’s been a nine-year wait. Second, the Twins just finished a series against the White Sox on the South Side, so if their fans wanted to see six road games in a row, they didn’t have to leave Chicago (and the Twins head to Milwaukee to face the Brewers next week, too, so we’ll all be big Twins fans after Sunday).

Because the Cubs haven’t played the Twins since 2015 (they won two of three in that series at Target Field) and not at Wrigley since 2009, I asked Maija Varda, managing editor of our SB Nation Twins site Twinkie Town, to tell us a little about her team.

The Twins finally had their top prospects come of age last year, and they made the A.L. Wild Card game, which gave hope to a lot of us up here in North Star state. Unfortunately, it was a lot of misplaced hope, because the Twins have sucked an entire butt so far this year.

Unfortunately, a lot of it is due to injury and/or other unfortunate circumstances. Byron Buxton broke his toe, Miguel Sano pulled his hamstring (in addition to never fully recovering from having his shin replaced with a titanium rod last year), starting catcher Jason Castro just completely broke and is out the entire year, Jorge Polanco was suspended 80 games for PEDs, Joe Mauer hurt his neck and had return of concussion syndromes... etc. Not kidding, it just keeps going on, and on. If you even recognize the name of half the people in the Twins’ lineup, I applaud you. This was supposed to be the Twins’ year, and basically the exact opposite happened.

This is the last year of Mauer’s eight-year, $184 million contact. If you want to know, no, I am not okay with it. I have pretty much watched Joe Mauer my entire life, and I am in no way okay with this. I could expand on this for hours, but will save you from that fate. I absolutely love Joe from the bottom of my heart and I am terrified about what might happen.

Fun fact

The Cubs are 14-13 all-time against the Twins, but have won eight of 12 at Wrigley Field.

Pitching matchups

Friday: Mike Montgomery, LHP (2-2, 3.39 ERA, 1.148 WHIP, 3.89 FIP) vs. Jose Berrios, RHP (8-5, 3.15 ERA, 0.942 WHIP, 3.25 FIP)

Saturday: Tyler Chatwood, RHP (3-5, 3.95 ERA, 1.727 WHIP, 4.93 FIP) vs. Adalberto Mejia, LHP (making his 2018 season debut)

Sunday: Jon Lester, LHP (10-2, 2.18 ERA, 1.084 WHIP, 4.08 FIP) vs. Lance Lynn, RHP (5-6, 4.81 ERA, 1.614 WHIP, 4.14 FIP)

Times & TV channels

Friday: 4:05 p.m. CT, NBC Sports Chicago

Saturday: 1:20 p.m. CT, ABC7 Chicago, MLB Network (outside Chicago and Minneapolis markets)

Sunday: 1:20 p.m. CT, WGN

Prediction

As Maija wrote, the Twins are having a colossally bad season, largely due to injuries. They’re starting one pitcher who’s been in Triple-A this year until now, and another who the Cubs are quite familiar with and who’s having a pretty bad season. The pitching matchups look generally favorable, so, the Cubs should win two of three here.

Up next

The Cubs have Monday off, then host the Detroit Tigers in a two-game series beginning Tuesday afternoon.