The Minnesota Twins return home with their chins up despite a losing road trip.
Minnesota will try to keep its confidence high when it opens a three-game series against the Athletics on Friday night in Minneapolis. The contest marks the start of a six-game homestand for the Twins, who also will host the Kansas City Royals for three games.
The Twins are coming off a 3-4 road trip. However, they closed the trek with back-to-back wins over the Cleveland Guardians, which gave manager Derek Shelton reason to believe that the team is on an upswing.
That could prove to be important as the Minnesota front office tries to decide whether to buy, stand pat or sell ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
“To bounce back, it’s one of the few times going home 3-4 that I feel good about it,” Shelton said after the Twins escaped with a 3-1, 12-inning win over the Guardians on Thursday.
The Athletics will try to spoil the good feelings for Minnesota. They are coming off back-to-back losses against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, and they are 2-4 since returning from the All-Star break.
Injuries have decimated the Athletics, who put right-handers J.T. Ginn and Mark Leiter Jr. and infielder Joshua Kuroda-Grauer on the injured list this week. A slew of other players such as Brent Rooker, Nick Kurtz, Zack Gelof, Luis Severino and Justin Sterner also have been sidelined by injuries.
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said the injuries are testing the team’s depth, particularly in the late innings, where he now must rely mostly on unproven hurlers.
“It’s challenging,” Kotsay said. “You look at the bullpen collectively, and there’s just not a lot of experience. There’s not a lot of guys with track records that can come in and shut down an inning. We’re going through a tough stretch here of trying to find those guys. We’re not going to stop trying. We’ll continue to make moves.”
The Twins will turn to right-hander Zebby Matthews (4-7, 5.40 ERA) as they seek their third win in a row. Matthews hopes to bounce back from his worst start of 2026 after the Chicago Cubs slammed him for 10 runs (eight earned) on nine hits in three-plus innings during a 10-1 rout on Sunday.
This will be Matthews’ second career start against the Athletics. He faced the A’s on June 4, 2025, and earned a win after holding them to one run on four hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out four.
The Athletics will counter with left-hander Jacob Lopez (4-4, 6.64 ERA), who will make his 16th appearance and 13th start of the season. He is looking for his first victory since May 24 against the San Diego Padres.
In his most recent outing, Lopez took a 5-2 loss against the Washington Nationals on Sunday after giving up two runs on two hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and matched his season high with six strikeouts.
In two career appearances (one start) against the Twins, Lopez is 1-1 with a 6.10 ERA. He has given up eight runs (seven earned) in 10 1/3 innings, but he also has walked only two batters while striking out 17.
–Field Level Media
