It’s Duensing against Wilson tonight, but Brian is going to battle without Justin Morneau in the line up behind him. Doc’s wrist is sore and he asked for a night off.
Jim Thome is sore after getting an epidural for his various sore body parts, so it’s certainly no sure thing that he’ll be returning any time soon.
Joe Mauer is catching for the third game in a row tonight in Ft. Myers. He’ll take tomorrow off, then get behind the plate again Sunday. That’s when decision will get made as to whether he’ll go to Rochester for more rehab or join the Twins for the start of their series vs Chicago Tuesday.
Tsuyoshi Nishioka is on a similar track. He’s leading off and playing SS in Ft. Myers tonight and then may move on to a higher level of minor league ball to see better pitching before anyone decides when to have him rejoin the Twins.
Remember the good old days when all we had to talk about in the GameChat posts was the starting pitcher? I miss those days.
I’m a little curious as to why Ben Revere is in LF with Jason Repko in CF… but I suppose that’s not a real big deal. Just seems like Repko’s arm would play better in RF.
| RANGERS | @ | TWINS |
| Andrus, SS | Revere, LF | |
| Gentry, CF | Casilla, A, SS | |
| Hamilton, LF | Cuddyer, RF | |
| Young, M, DH | Young, D, DH | |
| Beltre, A, 3B | Hughes, L, 1B | |
| Cruz, N, RF | Valencia, 3B | |
| Napoli, 1B | Repko, CF | |
| Torrealba, C | Tolbert, 2B | |
| Blanco, A, 2B | Butera, C | |
| Wilson, C, P | Duensing, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Texas | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 13 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 2 |
I got home from dinner in the third inning… and this game was already over. The silver lining tonight was Anthony Swarzak. 6 innings of work with just a couple of earned runs is good enough to get a “quality start” if you’re the starting pitcher. It gets you a “nice job” when you come in to a game that’s already a lost cause. Of course, in this case, it may also get Swarzak a spot in the rotation a week from now.