9월16일 MLB

Minnesota at Chicago White Sox (-105, 8.5)

The rivalry between the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox is nothing new, but sometimes it can be blown way out of proportion. On Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune featured a huge headline to accompany a Mark Buehrle photo saying “I hate the Twins,” which was accurate. However, Buehrle continued to say he hated Minnesota because “they’re good and they win.”

Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire didn’t appear overly offended.

"I enjoy the heck out of it, even 'I hate the Twins' on a headline. That's great stuff,” Gardenhire told reporters “I mean, Chicago stuff, that's great. You open the paper up and, 'Hey, honey you want a cup of coffee?' 'Yeah — I hate the Twins?' It doesn't get any better than that. It's a great article, and it doesn't get any better than that."  

The Twins had won 20 of its last 26 games against the White Sox heading into Wednesday’s matchup.

Pick: Twins

Arizona at Cincinnati (-180, 9)

The Cincinnati Reds could be getting a big veteran presence back on the field for the stretch run. Jim Edmonds, who has been out since the end of August with an oblique injury, has responded to treatment well after many thought his season, or even his career might be over.

Reports out of Cincinnati say that he looks good in the batting cage and may return over the next few days. Edmonds is batting .272 with nine homers and 21 RBIs in 82 games this season.

Cincinnati had lost two of three heading into Wednesday’s game and was limited to just a single run in both of those losses.

Pick: Over

Streaking

Tim Stauffer (4-3, 1.54 ERA), San Diego Padres
Stauffer made the most of his opportunity filling in for Mat Latos last week. He fired four innings of one-run ball on Monday and then followed that up six scoreless innings, giving up three hits against the Giants on Saturday. Get used to Stauffer in the rotation. Word is the Padres are going to keep him there for a while.

Jonathan Sanchez (10-8, 3.29 ERA), San Francisco Giants
Sanchez has pitched San Francisco to team wins in four of his last five starts and hasn’t given up a run over his last two innings, spanning 12 innings. He allowed only one hit in his last outing, blanking the Padres over five innings in a 1-0 loss. The lefty did have problems with his control in that one, walking seven while striking out four.

Slumping

Rodrigo Lopez (5-14, 5.13 ERA), Arizona Diamondbacks
Lopez hasn’t won a game since July 8, going 0-6 through those 11 starts, though he has been better lately. He allowed just two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss at Colorado the last time he took the hill and only allowed three runs over six innings in a 3-2 loss against Houston before that.