This is going to be a good series, I can just feel it! Both teams are coming off VERY successfull series within the division and are feeling pretty good. I have to admit that I’m feeling pretty charitable towards the Indians right now since they just WHALLOPED the Tigers. Now, I am not feeling charitable enought that I want us to let them win or anything but still, they are on my good side. I know that aren’t doing so well standings-wise but I don’t think that means we should take them for granted like the Tigers seemed to have done. I ALSO think that they played better baseball against us last time than the Tigers did against us so I hope the boys remember that.
Here’s the good news/bad news of the injury radar for today. GOOD: Joe Nathan finally threw for the first time today since his surgery. It was supposed to be Saturday but it was delayed until today. Everything went well and he’s supposed to throw again on Wednesday. I hope he feels great now and tomorrow. BAD: Justin Morneau is still woozy which is not a good sign. He’ll be seeing a concussion specialist, Dr. Morgan, tomorrow. This guy also works with the Vikings and the Wild on these issues so I hope that we can get a plan of action to help him feel better soon. However, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll take the trip with the team to Baltimore.
In other injury news, Casilla is almost done rehabbing. According to Phil Mackey, he’s supposed to be done on Saturday but Gardy was hinting that he would like him to be available for Wednesday’s day game if possible.
News Update: per LENIII at the Strib – “Heard from the clubhouse that former Twin Mike Redmond, who was released by Cleveland on Saturday, probably will spend the rest of the summer in Cleveland. One of the reasons he signed there was because he has family there. Doesn’t sound like he’s knocking on doors looking to play again.” I still think fondly of you Red Dawg and miss you bunches on that bench – please, consider coming to MN to coach – we’d love you at 3B!!!!!!!
At any rate, I’m looking forward to a good series with the guys we have who are really stepping up lately! I’m a little cautious with my optimism however since I’m hoping for a good outting from Scott Baker – like just about everyone else in Twins Territory. Boy do I wish I was at one of the games this week – been away from live baseball for awhile now and I have to admit I miss it. Funny how the ballpark experience is so addictive! I’m going through withdrawal!
| Cleveland | @ | Minnesota |
| Brantley, CF | Span, CF | |
| Nix, J, 2B | Hudson, O, 2B | |
| Santana, C, C | Mauer, C | |
| Kearns, RF | Cuddyer, 1B | |
| Hafner, DH | Kubel, RF | |
| Peralta, J, 3B | Young, D, LF | |
| LaPorta, 1B | Thome, DH | |
| Crowe, LF | Valencia, 3B | |
| Donald, SS | Hardy, SS | |
| Laffey, P | Baker, S, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Cleveland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 20 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 1 |
That game not only took 4 HOURS to play 9 innings of baseball, it felt like it took twice that. According to Dick Bremer, there were 391 pitches thrown in this game. Sadly, it most definitely did not go our way. It was fun to see some continuing hitting from a few standouts though – Delmon was fantastic with the bat even if there were a couple ugly moments in the field – JJ Hardy was beautiful in the field (isn’t he always) and he had a couple timely hits too – Cuddy still getting on base – but we just couldn’t seem to string the stuff together the right way. And our pitchers couldn’t seem to miss the opposing bats to save their life. The Indians had 20 hits tonight. Ouch.
But I told you guys before the game even started that this was not a team to take for granted and that they would come in here in a great mood. They did. They played solid ball tonight.
I stayed with the broadcast long enough to hear Gardy talk about the roster moves they are making. Alex Burnett is being optioned back down to AAA which we figured was basically a guarantee given his outting tonight. But the really exciting moment for seemingly ALL the Twins bloggers is that Anthony Slama is coming up to shore up the bullpen. This is his first chance to join the big league club and it has been long awaited. When I saw him last in spring training, he was not only wearing tall socks, but stirrups as well! Had to make sure we covered important details in addition to the fact that he’s being discussed as the closer of the future. This will be a fun shakeup I think. Condrey is going on the 60 day DL to make room on the 40 man roster for Slama.
Now, we just have to figure out what to do with the starting rotation.. Ouch again.