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Twins, Indians open critial three-game series

Aug 27, 2007 - 1:26 PM Minnesota (67-63) at Cleveland (72-57) 7:05 pm EDT

CLEVELAND (Ticker) - The Minnesota Twins are looking to make up some ground in the American League Central when they visit the Cleveland Indians in Monday's series opener.

Carlos Silva (10-12, 4.10 ERA) gets the call for the Twins, who are 5 1/2 games behind Cleveland in the AL Central standings. In his last outing, Silva dazzled through eight innings to defeat Seattle, 8-4, on Wednesday.

The 28-year-old righthander has been outstanding in the month of August, limiting opponents to five runs in four outings. But he only managed to register one win over that stretch.

Cleveland counters with Paul Byrd (12-5, 4.61), who is winless in his last two starts here. On August 11, the righthander was tagged for seven runs on seven hits in just two innings in a loss to the New York Yankees.

Despite his recent struggles at Jacobs Field, Byrd has dominated the Twins, posting an impressive 9-3 record with a 3.59 ERA in 15 career outings in the series.

On Sunday, Jason Bartlett tripled twice and Torii Hunter added two key hits and a great catch to lead the Twins to a four-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles.