Seattle (22-29) at Minnesota (22-26) 2:10 pm EDT
MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) - With their sights set on a series sweep,
the Minnesota Twins certainly have found the right man for the
job.
The Twins turn to ace Johan Santana on Sunday when they look to
wrap up a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners.
Minnesota has not posted a sweep since taking three straight vs.
Oakland from April 11-13. The Twins put themselves in this
position with a 3-1 triumph on Friday and a 9-5 victory on
Saturday.
Santana (4-4, 3.42 ERA) takes the ball in the series finale in
search of his team-leading fifth win of the season. The
Venezuelan lefthander was reached for a season-high five runs in
seven innings Tuesday but did not factor into the 6-5 triumph
against Cleveland.
Santana has dominated most teams throughout his impressive
career, including the Mariners, against whom he is 5-1 with a
3.00 ERA in 12 lifetime games.
Seattle counters with Joel Pineiro (4-5, 5.25), who has lost
three straight starts. He has worked six innings or fewer in
each of those contests and has allowed at least five runs in all
of them.
Pineiro is 2-4 with a 4.06 ERA in 11 career starts against
Minnesota.
The Mariners have lost three straight games overall and also
have dropped three straight matchups with the Twins since
winning the first meeting this season.