Twins take on Rays, seek rare sweep

The past couple of days for the Minnesota Twins have been sweet.

They hope Sunday culminates in a sweep.

Minnesota will strive for a three-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays when the teams meet in Minneapolis. If the Twins can pull it off, it will mark their first sweep since they beat the Baltimore Orioles in three games in mid-May.

Confidence is in full supply for the Twins, who have won their first two games against the Rays in walk-off fashion. Harrison Bader homered to lead off the bottom of the ninth in a 4-3 victory on Friday, and Brooks Lee provided a game-winning squeeze bunt in the ninth for a 6-5 win on Saturday.

Lee said he and his teammates believe they can erase any deficit and win any game.

"It's great," Lee said during an on-field interview moments after teammates mobbed him to celebrate Saturday's game-winning hit. "We have the players to do it. We have the pitching to do it, too."

Lee also took a moment to recognize his manager, Rocco Baldelli, who earned his 500th career win.

"It's awesome," Lee said. "I'm sure he doesn't want to talk about it, but we're gonna."

Meanwhile, the Rays are in a tough spot as they answer questions about their bullpen, which has faltered in recent days. Right-handed reliever Kevin Kelly took the loss on Friday, and left-handed reliever Garrett Cleavinger suffered the defeat on Saturday.

"They're going through it right now. You feel for them," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "Every mistake is probably magnified with guys on base and getting barreled somewhere. Some of them are leaving the ballpark. But we need them, we depend on them, they're good, and better than they've shown the past couple of games. Other than that, you just feel for them."

Rays infielder/outfielder Brandon Lowe said it was not fair to put all the blame on the bullpen.

"If you cut out the last week or something like that, our bullpen's been fantastic. We'll look back in two months and not talk about this stretch that they're having," Lowe said. "As much as hitters go through ups and downs, our pitchers are going to do the same thing."

Twins right-hander Joe Ryan (8-4, 2.75 ERA) will make his 17th start of the season on Sunday. He is coming off a hard-luck, 2-0 loss against the Miami Marlins on Tuesday despite limiting them to one run on five hits in seven innings.

Ryan is 1-0 with a 2.16 ERA in three career starts against Tampa Bay, walking four and striking out 17 in 16 2/3 innings.

Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen (7-5, 2.78 ERA) will oppose Ryan in what profiles to be a pitchers' duel. Rasmussen will try to bounce back from a bumpy outing against the Athletics on Monday, when he gave up four runs on five hits over three innings in his team's 6-4 loss.

In five career games (two starts) against the Twins, Rasmussen is 1-1 with a 4.11 ERA. He has walked four and struck out 15 in 15 1/3 innings.

--Field Level Media