As the Twins hope to gain another victory in their second game against the Cincinnati Reds, they call left-hander Brian Duensing from the bullpen to make his first start for the Twins this season.
Duensing has a respectable record as a relieving pitcher for the Twins, with a 3.12 ERA in 30 appearances. His stats as a starting pitcher aren’t bad either. Last season Duensing went 9-14 in his starts for the Twins with a 5.23 ERA.
"We have all the confidence in the world in him," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's just going to be about stretching him out. We know he can do this. How he'll do, you never know because he hasn't been in this situation all year, but I don't have too many worries about Duensing pitching. It's about how long we can keep him out there and get him stretched out."
That’s because the Twins are scheduled to play 17 games in the next 17 days, including a double-header against the Kansas City Royals next Saturday. They needed to beef up their rotation to prepare for the long stretch leading into the All-Star break.
Let’s hope Brian Duensing can perform in the starting rotation as well as he has in the bullpen. The Twins need an opportunity to get out of this win one, lose one, win one pattern they’ve been on and actually start a winning streak. The Cincinnati Reds are currently in a 4-game losing streak, which we hope to keep going in order to win our first series since we played the Cubs earlier this month.
The Reds will be using right-hander Johnny Cueto to start in the game this afternoon. Cueto will be a solid counter, as he is currently 8-3 with the Reds and holds a 2.38 ERA in 14 starts this season.
We're hoping to see a strong lineup today. It’d be great to have the Twins back on a winning streak.
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