{"id":16393,"date":"2011-07-09T10:07:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-09T15:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16393"},"modified":"2011-07-09T10:07:24","modified_gmt":"2011-07-09T15:07:24","slug":"mlb-betting-preview-minnesota-twins-vs-chicago-white-sox-al-central-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-betting-preview-minnesota-twins-vs-chicago-white-sox-al-central-race-16393\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Betting Preview: Minnesota Twins vs Chicago White Sox AL Central Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox continue their American League Central series Saturday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field<\/p>\n

Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Minnesota Twins star Joe Mauer has a .371 career batting average at U.S. Cellular Field<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minnesota continues to have all the answers against Chicago in picking up an 8-5 victory Friday night.\u00a0 The Twins have now won 30 of 37 meetings against the White Sox, pulling within 1 1\/2 games of third place in the division standings.\u00a0 \u201cI think everybody is aware of where we are right now,\u201d said Twins starting pitcher Nick Blackburn.\u00a0 \u201cIf we can take the series, it\u2019ll be a great four-game trip for us.\u201d\u00a0 Catcher Joe Mauer will definitely want to stay behind in the Windy City, collecting 29 hits in his last 58 at-bats, which has raised his career batting average to .371 at the venue.\u00a0 Minnesota is 15-10 versus divisional foes this year, but just 15-19 in day games.<\/p>\n

Twins starting pitcher Brian Duensing is 6-7 with a 4.25 ERA in 17 appearances (16 starts) this season and will look to win his third consecutive start.\u00a0 The left-hander has had little success on the road, posting a 2-4 record and 3.91 ERA, as opponents are hitting .277 against him in eight outings.\u00a0 Duensing has had a much better time during the day this year, recording a 4-4 mark and 2.72 ERA in eight daytime starts compared to a 2-3 record and 5.91 ERA at night.\u00a0 In 10 career games (four starts) versus the White Sox, he is a perfect 4-0 with a 2.50 ERA.<\/p>\n

Chicago was unable to hold a 5-1 first-inning lead yesterday and is now 7-15 versus AL Central foes this year.\u00a0 \u201cAt least we had something out of the gate,\u201d said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen.\u00a0 \u201cWe started very well and all of the sudden, our tires got flat.\u201d\u00a0 The White Sox remain 5 1\/2 games back behind the Indians despite losing four straight home games.\u00a0 Struggling against its own division is nothing new for the squad after recording a losing 32-40 mark during the 2010 campaign.\u00a0 Offensively, the lineup is hoping to receive some sort of contribution from outfielder Adam Dunn before the All-Star break, who is mired in a 3-for-38 slump with 22 strikeouts.\u00a0 Chicago is an even 17-17 during day games.<\/p>\n

White Sox starting pitcher Mark Buehrle is 6-5 with a 3.66 ERA in 17 starts this season and is 4-0 with a 3.00 ERA over his last six starts at U.S. Cellular Field.\u00a0 On the year, the left-hander has a winning 4-1 mark and 2.83 ERA in eight home outings, but has registered just 26 strikeouts in 54 innings.\u00a0 Buehrle has made 48 lifetime appearances (46 starts) versus the Twins, posting a 25-19 record and 4.03 ERA, including a 14-8 mark and 3.82 ERA at home.\u00a0 He suffered a loss in his last start versus Minnesota on June 16 at Target Field despite allowing just a single run on three hits over seven frames.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Twins due to their 5-0 mark as an underdog, while the White Sox are 0-4 as a home favorite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox continue their American League Central series Saturday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field Minnesota Twins at Chicago White Sox Minnesota continues to have all the answers against Chicago in picking up an 8-5 victory Friday night.\u00a0 The Twins have now won 30 of 37 meetings against the White Sox, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[5052,56,2612,171,990,2268,240,183,1810],"class_list":["post-16393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-adam-dunn","tag-al-central","tag-brian-duensing","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-joe-mauer","tag-mark-buehrle","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-ozzie-guillen","tag-u-s-cellular-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16393"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16394,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16393\/revisions\/16394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}