BEST LINE: Pinnacle -1½ +151

The Twins have scored 15 runs over their past nine games and have only scored two or more twice over that span. Minnesota has one win over their past seven games, so the timing for this three-game set at New York comes at the worst possible time. Yankee Stadium has been a house of horrors for the Twinkies, as they have just 14 wins in the past 54 games here. The Twins are not only going bad, but they are hitting just .232 against southpaws and will face one here in Vidal Nuno. Nuno is an interesting case. He turned some heads with a solid 2012 season at Double-A (though he was a bit old for the level), followed up by an impressive spring training and start to 2013 at Triple-A where he posted a 1.54 ERA, 10K’s/9 and .157 oppBA. Those were very impressive numbers for a 48th round draft pick in ’09 who has never been on any top prospect lists. He was actually released from the Indians farm system in ’10 before spending some time playing independent ball. That is where the Yankees found him and he moved quickly through their system to earn his first call-up. Nuno does not have a typical starter’s frame at 5-11 195, nor does he have a plus pitch in his repertoire. He has to rely on a deceptive delivery along with a nearly side-arm slot to keeps hitters off-balance. Arm angle makes him much tougher on left-handed batters. Nuno throws four pitches and can locate all of them well: fastball, slider, curveball, and change-up. Fastball tops out at 91 mph with pretty good location. Nuno’s 5.49 ERA is skewed because of some early disasters but he’s been coming on recently with three very good outings in his last four starts. On Saturday against the South Side at US Cellular, Nuno threw a respectable 67 of 101 pitches for strikes and was outstanding following a three-run first inning. He’s also had solid outings recently against both the Angels and Pirates. The Twins have never seen Nuno before and that, too, works to his advantage.

Ricky Nolasco has four quality starts in 10 tries this season. He has just two wins and one of those occurred back in April when he got whacked by the Indians but Minnesota scored 10 times and the Twins won 10-7. Nolasco’s WHIP is 1.57 and his BAA is .322. On the road, Nolasco’s ERA is 8.63 and his BAA is .384. In 32.1 road innings, Nolasco has allowed 53 hits. Dude has been batting practice out there and the Yankees come into this one swinging well with 20 runs scored over their past four games and that includes six or more in St. Louis in two of the three games there. Nolasco’s groundball/line-drive/fly-ball profile of 32%/23%/45% is more proof that the move from the NL to the AL is one that he’s not adjusting to well. With his confidence low and his skills worse, the Pinstripes figure to score early and often off Nolasco.