Twins and Athletics Meet in a Battle of Struggling Rosters

Two teams well below .500 square off Wednesday night at Sutter Health Park, where neither club has much to play for beyond pride and individual milestones. There's no validated model read for this one, so we're going straight to the tape on what matters: the arms on the mound and the bats that could decide it.

Connor Prielipp is expected to take the mound for Minnesota, while J.T. Ginn is set to start for Oakland — two pitchers whose performances tonight will do a lot of the heavy lifting in a game between a Twins squad sitting at 64-69 and an Athletics team that's had a rougher go at 52-81. Neither rotation slot inspires overwhelming confidence on paper, which means the offenses could have real opportunities to do damage if either starter struggles to find a rhythm early.

On the Minnesota side, the names to track are well-defined. Byron Buxton leads the Twins with 25 home runs — the kind of pop that can flip a game on a single swing — while Josh Bell has been the quiet engine of the lineup with 80 RBI. Luke Keaschall brings a .273 batting average to the table, making him one of the more reliable contact options Minnesota can deploy. If Prielipp runs into trouble, this trio gives the Twins a credible path to manufacturing runs in a hurry.

Oakland's offense is a different story. Lawrence Butler leads the Athletics in batting average at .227 — a number that tells you something about the state of this lineup. Zack Gelof has 14 home runs, which gives the A's at least one legitimate power threat, and Jeff McNeil has driven in 45 runs to pace the club in RBI. The Athletics aren't without weapons, but they're asking those weapons to carry a lot of weight against a Twins team that, despite its record, has more proven run-producers in the lineup. Without a model read to anchor a lean, this one comes down to which starter can eat innings and keep his team's bullpen out of trouble longest — and that's genuinely a coin flip tonight.