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Twins' Grossman enjoys hitting at home, vs. AL West teams
Robbie Grossman has been a pleasant surprise for the Minnesota Twins this season. Since joining the Twins, he has played in 42 games (though Monday), batting .279 with a .409 on-base percentage and .479 slugging percentage.
The switch-hitting outfielder has already matched his career high in home runs with six -- and he did that in 103 games in 2014 with Houston -- and is tied for third on Minnesota with 31 walks, despite being on the team for roughly half the season.
The Twins picked up Grossman after he was released from the Cleveland organization. He played just one game for Rochester in Triple-A before being recalled by Minnesota, and it has been hard to get him out of the lineup since. And, in fact, he's batted all over the lineup. Grossman has led off once, batted second (16 times), third (5), fifth (9), sixth (7) and seventh (1).
There's two things Grossman has particularly enjoyed: Hitting in Target Field and against AL West opponents.
At home this year, Grossman has played in 27 games and has a slash line of 302/444/465 with more walks (22) than strikeouts (21).
The former Houston Astros outfielder has thrived against his old division mates, too. In 13 games against AL West opponents, Grossman is batting .326 with a .420 on-base percentage and 1.001 OPS, with seven extra-base hits and seven RBI.
So, yeah, he's probably licking his chops playing Oakland at Target Field.
Someone else who is happy to be at Target Field is starting pitcher Tommy Milone, and not just because he hasn't made a start there since April 25. In his last 11 starts at home, Milone is 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA. The Twins are 7-4 in those games.
Other notes:
-- Oakland starter Sean Manea has allowed 13 earned runs in his first two career road starts, the most of any A's pitcher since 1968.
-- Manea is one of five rookies to have started a game for Oakland this season, the second-most in the majors. The Twins have had three rookies start at least one game in 2016, which is the second-most in the American League.
-- Joe Mauer has the second-highest batting average since 2004 (min. 3,000 plate appearances) at .3102, tied with Ichiro Suzuki. Miguel Cabrera is tops at .323. Jose Altuve is at .3101 and Buster Posey .309.
Statistics courtesy STATS LLC and baseball-reference.com
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