We’ve been doing these GameChat things where we post the starting line ups for almost three years now. I certainly don’t post the line ups every day or even half the time. But I do it often enough that I can state with certainty that this is the first time I’ve ever posted EXACTLY the same batting order, right down to the positions the players are playing, two nights in a row for the Twins. It was such a shock that I had to check it about three times to make sure I was looking at tonight’s line up on the MLB site.
It makes sense, though. Everything pretty much clicked last night, so why change anything? We can only hope that we get as many innings of solid work out of Brian Duensing as Sam Deduno provided last night and, of course, that Duensing gets similar offensive and defensive support.
| TIGERS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Jackson, A, CF | Revere, CF | |
| Infante, 2B | Mastroianni, RF | |
| Cabrera, Mi, 3B | Mauer, 1B | |
| Fielder, 1B | Willingham, LF | |
| Peralta, Jh, SS | Morneau, DH | |
| Young, D, DH | Doumit, C | |
| Baker, Je, RF | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Dirks, LF | Carroll, SS | |
| Laird, C | Casilla, A, 2B | |
| _Fister, P | _Duensing, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Detroit | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 13 | 3 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
UPDATE: After the game, the Twins announced that SS Brian Dozier has been optioned to Rochester and Pedro Florimon has had his contract purchased by the Twins. Maybe they read Eric’s post here at Knuckleballs?
So much for having all the pieces fall together tonight like they did on Monday, huh?
Brian Duensing wasn’t terribly sharp to start the game and certainly didn’t get a lot of outstanding defensive support. The offense never really showed up and, just to make it an all-round consistent night, the bullpen wasn’t good either.
Wednesday, the Twins will still have a chance to win the series, so let’s cross our fingers while we wait to see which version of this ballclub shows up. – JC