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The Minnesota Twins understand that Sunday afternoon’s game against the Los Angeles Angels might be different than most matchups.

As the Twins go for a three-game sweep in Minneapolis, the national spotlight will be focused across the street. That’s where the Minnesota Timberwolves will host the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA playoffs.

Twins pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson said he hopes success will be contagious, particularly as the Timberwolves look to take a 3-1 edge in their best-of-seven series.

“With all this playoff winning going around, we’ve got to win some, too,” Woods Richardson said. “Bring that energy back over to us, let it rub off on us a little bit.”

For the Twins, it’s been so far, so good.

Minnesota won the series opener 11-4 against the Angels on Friday and followed with a 5-1 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Twins have won four of their past five games and will vie for their first series sweep of the season.

A big part of the Twins’ recent success has been their improvement at the plate. Minnesota has outscored opponents 26-13 over the past five games after fledging on offense for the first few weeks.

“It’s exciting to watch,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said after Saturday’s victory. “Because every single guy is going up there and just winning their at-bats over and over again. It was really great to see.”

Angels right-hander Jose Soriano (2-3, 4.34 ERA) will try to stem the tide as he makes his sixth start of the season. The 26-year-old is coming off a loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates in which he allowed five runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings as Los Angeles fell 9-3.

Soriano has pitched in two games (one start) against Minnesota. He is 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in those games and has allowed four runs on three hits in 2 2/3 innings. He has walked three and struck out two.

Minnesota is expected to counter with veteran right-hander Joe Ryan (1-2, 4.00 ERA), who also is slated to make his sixth start. Ryan hopes to bounce back from his toughest outing of the season in which he allowed six runs on eight hits in five innings in a 6-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves last Sunday.

Ryan is 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in three career starts against the Angels. He has allowed nine runs (eight earned) on 18 hits in 16 innings and has walked four and fanned 24.

The Angels will look for their bullpen to be effective despite the absence of Ben Joyce, who remains sidelined because of a right shoulder injury.

“With Ben out, it changes the dynamics of it,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said. “With that being said, Kenley (Jansen) has been outstanding, (Ryan Zeferjahn) has been outstanding.

“At the back end of games, we’ve been very competitive when we’ve been tied or had leads late. But I think the front end of the bullpen is where we haven’t done great and have spread some scores the wrong way. As a whole, from a numbers standpoint, it doesn’t look great, but at the end of the day, the back-end part of it has been very good.”

–Field Level Media