Righthander Jose Berrios has been throwing more two-seam fastballs lately, as he's trying to use something with more movement. We'll see how it works out tonight when the Twins play host to the Tigers (7:10 p.m., FSN).
There's been a lot of speculation of why his velocity has dipped lately, one of them is that he's throwing the sinker more often that the four-seamer. My curiosity spiked when, in each of his last two outings, he reared back in the fifth inning and hit 95 on the gun.
He has it in him, he's just not using it. The Twins must believe that Berrios can be effective while tinkering with more movment, but he hasn't looked sharp since his July 31 domination of the Marlins.
The Twins are right. Berrios' fastball, according to Baseball Savant, is below league average in terms of spin rate.
Eddie Rosario is not in today's lineup, so his tight hamstring must be a problem.
Byron Buxton hit, took fly balls and rans the bases this afternoon.
One programming note: I will be at the Star Tribune booth at the State Fair tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. My guest will be Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey.
The lineups:
Tigers
Victor Reyes, LF
Harold Castro, CF
Miguel Cabrera, DH
Niko Goordum, 2B
Brandon Dixon, 1B
Travis Demeritte, RF
Ronny Rodriguez, 3B
Jordy Mercer, SS
Jake Rogers, C
Drew VerHagen, RHP
Twins
Max Kepler, CF
Jorge Polanco, SS
Nelson Cruz, DH
Marwin Gonzalez, RF
Luis Arraez, 2B
Miguel Sano, 3B
Ehire Adrianza, 1B
Jason Castro, C
Jake Cave, LF
Jose Berrios, RHP
