It only SEEMS like the Twins have been moved to the American League East Division this season. In fact, they remain members in good standing of the AL Central Division, despite having played only two of their first 34 games within their division.
Tonight, they begin to rectify that issue as they host the first game of a brief two-game series against Cleveland.
Justin Morneau, who is eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday, reportedly took live batting practice before the game, though we still have no official word on when he may find his way back in to the lineup.
I’m sure we’ll all be watching Carl Pavano closely tonight for evidence that his arm is about to separate from his shoulder. He either has or hasn’t been having shoulder soreness, did or didn’t have an MRI, which did or didn’t show anything wrong, but was or wasn’t sent to an outside physician for a second opinion and may or may not lead to a cortisone shot, after which he may or may not miss a start or even may or may not go on the DL himself.
Thank goodness we’ve cleared that up.
| INDIANS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Choo, RF | Span, CF | |
| Kipnis, 2B | Dozier, SS | |
| Cabrera, A, SS | Mauer, 1B | |
| Hafner, DH | Willingham, LF | |
| Santana, C, C | Doumit, DH | |
| Brantley, CF | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Lopez, Jo, 3B | Mastroianni, RF | |
| Kotchman, 1B | Butera, C | |
| Duncan, LF | Carroll, 2B | |
| _Gomez, J, P | _Pavano, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Cleveland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 1 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
Our guys made it interesting, thanks to a Ryan Doumit moon shot in the bottom of the eighth, but the Tribe scored one run off of Matt Capps in the top of the 9th and that was the ballgame. We did see Francisco Liriano’s first relief appearance and he was very good… right up to the point where he walked three straight batters. He got a strike out to end the inning at that point, so I guess on balance it was a successful appearance. Starting pitcher Carl Pavano threw just 72 pitches in his six innings of work.
Noon game on Tuesday to wrap up the short series.
.