Minnesota Twins vs Jordan Zimmermann
Byron Buxton, Brian Dozier, Eddie Rosario, Eduardo Escobar, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco
The Twins are without slugger Miguel Sano but that hasn’t exactly hindered their offensive production and on Thursday they find themselves in a matchup against Jordan Zimmermann who they have HAMMERED for 17 earned runs on 21 hits over 11.2 innings this season. Zimmermann has been on the shelf due to a neck injury since September 2, so the Twins will be getting him off a long layoff which could bode well for them as well.
Washington Nationals vs R.A. Dickey
Daniel Murphy, Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman, Trea Turner, Anthony Rendon
Now there’s always the chance that Dickey’s knuckleball could be on tonight and the Nats' hitters won’t stand a chance but those days have been few and far between this season so sign me up with a Nationals stack today. The Nationals have really taken it to Dickey this season, scoring 16 runs on 23 hits over 24.1 innings this season.
St. Louis Cardinals vs Homer Bailey
Matt Carpenter, Tommy Pham, Dexter Fowler, Jose Ramirez, Paul DeJong, Kolten Wong, Yadier Molina
Bailey has faced the Cardinals one other time this season and he allowed 10 earned runs over 3.1 innings. In a perfect world the Cardinals will get to him like that once again and with Bailey just 5-8 with a 6.86 ERA it’s pretty unlikely that he will shut down this Cards offense that ranks 10th in the majors in batting average against right-handed pitching this season.