Wilkin Ramirez got the call to replace Jamey Carroll on the Twins’ roster. I bet there are a few guys in Rochester and New Britain wondering how the hell hitting .172 in your seven rehab games earns you a spot with the Big Club. I know Clete Thomas needed someone who could spell him occasionally in CF with the Twins, but jeez… .172? Really?
Aaron Hicks has been bad in AAA and so has Darin Mastroianni during his rehab and apparently they both claim to still be hurting a bit. If anyone ever tries to tell you that being the guy who is already on the 40-man roster doesn’t really mean much, don’t believe them for a second. The fact that Ramirez is on the expanded roster is the ONLY reason he’s wearing a Twins uniform tonight.
Two young pitchers on the mound in tonight’s game. Andrew Albers gets his second start and his first home start for the Twins and Danny Salazar goes for the Indians. Salazar, for those who may not be familiar, is a 23 year old fireballer. Look for mph readings in the upper 90s. Look for a lot of Twins to be walking back to the dugout shaking their heads.
| INDIANS |
@ |
TWINS |
| Bourn, CF | Dozier, 2B | |
| Swisher, 1B | Mauer, DH | |
| Kipnis, 2B | Morneau, 1B | |
| Cabrera, A, SS | Willingham, LF | |
| Santana, C, DH | Arcia, RF | |
| Gomes, Y, C | Plouffe, 3B | |
| Brantley, LF | Herrmann, C, C | |
| Aviles, 3B | Thomas, C, CF | |
| Stubbs, RF | Florimon, SS | |
| _Salazar, P | _Albers, A, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Cleveland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | 3 | 4 | 0 |
Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe provided what little offense the Twins generated with home runs in the first and second inning, respectively. Babs pointed out that this is seven straight games that Dozier has an extra-base hit and he apparently trails only Killer and Tony O for the club record of eight straight, so that’s kind of cool company to be in.
But let’s be honest, the big news tonight was Andrew Albers.
What do you do for an encore when you pitch 8 1/3 shutout innings in your Big League debut? Of course, you follow that up with a complete game shutout in your debut before the home fans at Target Field.
I wonder how many times this guy’s been told he doesn’t throw hard enough or doesn’t have enough “stuff” to ever make it to the Big Leagues. Just goes to show what perseverance can do. I don’t know if he’ll have a short MLB career or a long one and right now I’m not all that concerned about it. I know he’s giving Twins fans a reason to pay attention and something to smile about and that’s not nothing.
I also know this makes two BOD awards for Mr. Albers.
