So Alexi Casilla’s return from the DL lasted exactly one game. He’s back on the DL and the Twins will be adding a new infielder, but they’re apparently looking at options beyond the group in Rochester who’ve bounced up and down all year long. Should be interesting to see who comes up. [UPDATE: Phil Mackey reports Trevor Plouffe is on his way back up to replace Casilla.]
Michael Cuddyer is still nursing a sore neck and may miss the whole series. LaVelle E. Neal III of the Strib reports that Drew Butera was taking ground balls at 2B before the game. This is what this season has come to.
I’m headed to Perfect Game Field here in Cedar Rapids to see the Kernels take on Kane County in Midwest League play, but here are tonight’s Twins/Tribe lineups and the GameChat window for anyone interested in hanging out during the game:
| TWINS |
@ |
INDIANS |
| Span, CF | Choo, RF | |
| Tolbert, 2B | Donald, 2B | |
| Mauer, C | Cabrera, A, SS | |
| Morneau, 1B | Santana, C, C | |
| Kubel, RF | Duncan, DH | |
| Thome, DH | Fukudome, CF | |
| Valencia, 3B | LaPorta, 1B | |
| Young, D, LF | Hannahan, 3B | |
| Nishioka, SS | Carrera, LF | |
| _Duensing, P | _Tomlin, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| Cleveland | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | 3 | 10 | 0 |
I have no idea what happened in this game other than what the boxscore tells me and it tells me that, outside of a gopher ball, Brian Duensing had a decent night, as did the bullpen guys who followed him. The offense did not, however, have a very good night. (Why does this keep sounding familiar?) – JC
Another decent pitching performance wasted. Yes Duensing did throw a big, fat meatball right into the zone that got launched into the seats. I hope that homerun didn’t hit anyone in the head cuz it woulda killed him/her. Again the “Mendoza-line ” Twins somehow manage to push across ONE run. But on the bright side the M&M Boys (Money and more Money down the toilet) both managed to break out of their slumps with one meaningless hit each. Don’t hold your breath but the Dynamic Nine just might score TWO runs tomorrow. When are the Twins going to announce ticket price increases for 2012?