There’s no question in sports quite like the one that baseball fans ask, in reference to the game this afternoon or this evening or that they’ve just passed by on the TV: “Who’s pitching?”

For Twins fans, it’s often been a bit of a fraught question, since so often over the past decade, the follow-up question has been, “Who’s that?”

For once, though, the Twins have put together a rotation that almost always means there’s a good answer to the question. Almost always, you look at the starting pitcher and think, “Yeah, the Twins could win today.”

There’s one catch, though, regarding that question, especially in today’s game. Obviously, the starting pitcher remains important, but - especially for the Twins - an equally important question might be, “Who’s available out of the bullpen?”

Wednesday, the Twins used their Good Bullpen. Brock Stewart pitched the seventh, Jhoan Duran the high-leverage eighth, Griffin Jax the ninth. The Brewers didn’t get a sniff - they struck out five times and only managed to hit two ground balls that made it past the pitcher.

Thursday, though, that meant that all the Twins had available was their Bad Bullpen. Which is why it was even more curious that Rocco Baldelli decided to go there early.

Sonny Gray wasn’t particularly sharp on the mound, especially in the fourth inning, when he threw 35 pitches and allowed a single and three walks. But he pitched out of it, mostly; one run scored on a double-play grounder, which turned a 4-1 lead into a 4-2 lead.

With just 79 pitches under his belt, Gray expected to at least pitch the fifth, which prompted an argument with Baldelli in the dugout when the latter informed the former that his evening was done. I don’t expect that Gray was reminding Baldelli that his available bullpen was about to light some fires, but fans had to know that it was coming.

And so it proved. Jovani Moran immediately gave up three runs in the fifth, including a two-run triple by Javy Báez. This did have the effect of freeing Emilio Pagán, who is a good pitcher as long as he doesn’t have a lead to blow, and who thus contributed two solid innings. But this led right into the latest episode of “Jorge López Is Working Through Some Stuff,” one that included three Tigers doubles in the ninth inning, ended only by López somehow catching a foul pop-up to end the inning, and then sprinting to the dugout before he could be booed off the field again.

Duran, Jax, and Stewart are the Good Bullpen; Moran, Pagán, and López are the Bad Bullpen. (José De León and Josh Winder are the Anonymous Bullpen.)

Who’s pitching? Well, Friday is a Good Bullpen day, so the Twins have got a shot.

Down in Triple-A, the St. Paul Saints kept homering - but didn’t manage to keep winning. Catcher Chris Williams homered for the third consecutive game, bringing his three-day homer total to six, but the Saints lost 6-3 to Louisville.

Matt Wallner has cooled down a bit; he’s just 4-for-21 over his last five games, with eight strikeouts, and he hasn’t hit a homer in a couple of weeks. That said, he’s still hitting .295 / .409 / .455 in June, so “cooling down” is a relative term here. Jose Miranda, conversely, seems to be righting his ship a little bit. After not hitting at all, anywhere, in May, Miranda is batting .333 / .417 / .429 in June, with only six strikeouts in 11 games.

Tonight’s Schedule

TWINS vs. Detroit, 7:10. Joe Ryan is pitching.
SAINTS at Louisville, 6:15. Kenta Maeda is expected to make a rehab start and go five innings.
LYNX at Los Angeles, 9:00. Minnesota’s now tied for the worst record in the WNBA, with Seattle.