Minnesota Twins vs New York Yankees Prediction, Odds and Preview - 08/22/2021

Game Time: 1:05 pm ET, Sunday, August 22nd, 2021

Venue:  Yankee Stadium New York, New York

Where to Watch:  WPIX, Bally Sports North

Twins: 54-69  (4th place American League Central)
Yankees:  71-52 (2nd place American League East)

DraftKings:  Moneyline odds: Twins +160, Yanks -190; Over/Under:  10 runs

Bet365:  Moneyline odds:  Twins +160, Tanks -190; Over/Under 10 runs

Twins: Byron Buxton (finger) Out, Miguel Sano (paternity) Day to Day, Zander Wiel (quad) Out, 

Yankees: Gleyber Torres (thumb) Out, Gio Urshela (hamstring) Out, Corey Kluber (shoulder) Out

Twins:

M. Kepler, RF
J. Polanco, 2B
J. Donaldson, DH
L. Arraez, 3B
R. Refsnyder, LF
R. Jeffers, C
N. Gordon, CF
W. Astudillo, 1B
A. Simmons, SS
K. Maeda, SP

Yankees:

D. LeMahieu, 2B
A. Rizzo, 1B
A. Judge, CF
G. Stanton, RF
R. Odor, 3B
L. Voit, DH
A. Velazquez, SS
K. Higashioka, C
T. Wade, LF
G. Cole, SP

Twins:

Batting Average:  Jorge Polanco (.273)

Hits:  Jorge Polanco (121)

Home Runs: Miguel Sano (21)

RBI:  Jorge Polanco (70)

Stolen Bases: Jorge Polanco (10)

Wins:  Jose Berrios (7)

Saves:  Hansel Robles (10)

Strikeouts:  Jose Berrios )126)

Yankees:

Batting Average: Aaron Judge (.283)

Hits: DJ LeMahieu (126)

Home Runs:  Aaron Judge (27)

RBI:  Aaron Judge  (65)

Stolen Bases:  Gleyber Torres (12)

Wins:  Gerrit Cole  (11)

Saves:  Aroldis Chapman (23)

Strikeouts:  Gerrit Cole (185)

Twins: Rocco Baldelli
Yankees: Aaron Boone

The Twins are 6-4 over their last ten games with 5 Overs and 5 Unders. Going 0-2 to the Yankees to start this series, 2-1 against the Cleveland Indians, 2-1 against the Tampa Bay Rays, and 2-0 against the Chicago White Sox.  They played well over the ten games, but this team is out of any type of race.  They are fortunate to have the Kansas City Royals in their division to soak up last place.

The Yankees are 9-1 over their last ten games.  Tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for current win streak in Major League baseball. They went 5 Over and 5 Under.  They beat the Minneasota Twins 2-0 to start this home stand, they SWEPT the Boston Red Sox 3-0, won a 1-off make-up game against the Los Angeles Angels, took 2-1 off the Chicago White Sox, and beat KC to start it all off.  

The Twins are 12th in team batting average .243, 19th in runs scored 567, and 4th in home runs 174.  The offense isn’t something to start a podcast over but it is much better than their record indicates.

The Twins pitching is another story.  The Twins pitchers are 27th in ERA, 22nd in strikeouts 1007, and 3rd in runs allowed by pitcher 652.  If you are going to be 3rd at something you don’t want it to be Runs Allowed By Pitcher… the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers pitchers don’t give up that many runs by pitcher and they are terrible.  This is why the Twins have called up everybody in the minors to give them a look.  This offseason they may need to give everybody on the Free Agent list a look as well.

The Yankees are 17th in team batting average .238, 19th in runs scored, and 11th in home runs 154… that doesn’t seem like a surging team mowing down everybody over the last two weeks and jumping a good team in the standings?.. The Atlanta Braves and SF Giants would hide from twitter if they fell to 11th in home runs… It must be the..

Pitching!  The Yankees are 6th in team ERA 3.63, 8th best in runs allowed by pitcher 493, and 6th in strikeouts.  Stat after stat the Yankees are top 10 in pitching.  Teams like the Cincinnati Reds will jump into the top in strikeouts but plummet in giving up home runs etc.  The Bronx Bombers this year are known less for their bombs and more for their sliders.

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As pitching matchups go this should be interesting.  The Twins will start Griffin Jax on the mound 3-1, 5.11 ERA, 35 strikeouts in 44 innings pitched, 1.25 WHIP. A green 26 year old whose major league career has so far only been June-Aug.  Still he is pitching well and will probably stick with the club.  Griffin has the benefit of getting this work on a team that isn’t contending. He wouldn't be throwing for the Houston Astros or Milwaukee Brewers… he would for the Miami Marlins or Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Twins are a nice place to work it out and get that ERA down a bit.

The Yankees will start Luis Gil 1-0, 18 strikeouts in 15 innings pitched 1.02 WHIP… that’s right.  Luis is so new to the majors he doesn’t qualify for an ERA yet.  The Dominican 23 year old debuted against the Baltimore Orioles for his first win, he put in five innings against the Seattle mariners, and 4 against the Red Sox… that’s it, that's all the perspective we have to go on.   Luis has the benefit of all that great Yankee run support and the good vibes of the win streak on his side.

I convened a panel of professional handicappers to determine who would end up in 3rd place in the AL East… the heated argument that ensued was between the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays… no one thought about the Yankees.  Sports predictions of course can be wrong or there would be too many Vegas experts making educated bets on daily sports for Las Vegas to survive. (All these guys believe the Tampa Bay Rays will survive with 1st place).  They all had the feeling that the World Series would run through Dodger Stadium and the NL West this year.  So, San Francisco fans might not have enjoyed this panel.

“I knew after the first inning we were going to have to grind through it. We were going to have to find a way,...So I thought I did a decent job of coming back those last four and limiting the damage the best I could. But the damage was done pretty early.” -Charlie Barnes, Twins rookie starter, on the early going of the Yankees 10-2 win over the Twins Friday night.

“When you jump out like that, it's kind of refreshing to go out there and just be able to pump strikes and try and get quick outs,... You want to keep the offense in attack [mode], so it's good to go out there and just throw strikes and be able to get outs.” Nestor Cortes, Yankees starting pitcher about Friday’s win.

Our MLB Pick for Sunday, August 22nd, 2021 game is Yankees 6 Twins 2

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