Edouard Julien<\/b> didn\u2019t expect to see his name in the lineup Thursday, not with Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal <\/b>on the mound. <\/p>\n
Julien, a lefthanded hitter, typically doesn\u2019t start many games against lefty pitchers. He had only 20 plate appearances against lefties, but the Twins\u2019 current roster is heavy on lefty batters and it created an opening. <\/p>\n
All Julien did against Skubal, the reigning American League Cy Young winner and a top candidate to win again this year, was crush a 410-foot homer to right field in the third inning. It was the first homer Skubal allowed to a lefty batter all year. Julien added a single off Skubal in the fourth inning and flew out in the seventh. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe odds that lefties get hits off these guys are pretty hard,\u201d Julien said. \u201cI don\u2019t try to look at it like that, but I just like that they\u2019re giving me a chance to play. I just have to look at it that way instead of not looking down at myself. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want to get more opportunities. I just have to take the chance that I have and play well with it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Julien, 26, had a breakout rookie season in 2023, but he has yet to reclaim that form in the batter\u2019s box. He is out of minor league options next year, so these next six weeks are an important evaluation for where he fits in the organization. <\/p>\n
He was passed over at second base, where he badly struggled defensively, by Luke Keaschall<\/b>, and he\u2019s started his last six games at first base. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still learning,\u201d Julien said. \u201cI like it over there. You have to slow the game down a little bit more than at second base. I\u2019m learning every day, and [infield coach] Ramon [Borrego]<\/b> is helping me a lot with that, and [Justin] Morneau<\/b> too. I have good people to ask questions or surround myself with.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edouard Julien didn\u2019t expect to see his name in the lineup Thursday, not with Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":151826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-151825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115041329734936759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}