CLEVELAND — The Twins look to snap their six-game losing streak tonight, but they’ll be facing Cleveland righthander Paul Byrd, who doesn’t throw hard but always seems to give them trouble.

(Correction: Not a 10-game streak.)

Byrd went 4-0 against the Twins last year and is 10-3 with a 3.50 ERA against them for his career.

The Twins counter with Nick Blackburn who blanked Cleveland for 7 2/3 innings on April 19 to earn his first major league win.

Update (5:30 p.m.): Matt Tolbert had his cast removed from his left hand and now has his surgically repaired left thumb in a splint. Manager Ron Gardenhire said best-case scenario has Tolbert ready to play in big league games again by Aug. 1.

Juan Rincon has a stiff neck, and Gardy said he wanted to see how Rincon felt playing catch before the game before deciding if he was available to pitch tonight. Rincon has been playing long toss in the outfield and appears fine from here.

I should add that the weather here is spectacular again.

The Twins had a team meeting today, but it wasn’t some rah-rah thing. Phil Bradley is here from the players’ union.

Twins (31-34)

1. Carlos Gomez, CF

2. Alexi Casilla, 2B

3. Joe Mauer, C

4. Justin Morneau, 1B

5. Michael Cuddyer, RF

6. Jason Kubel, DH

7. Delmon Young, LF

8. Mike Lamb, 3B

9. Brendan Harris, SS

Starting pitcher: RH Nick Blackburn

Indians (30-35)

1. Grady Sizemore, CF

2. Ben Francisco, LF

3. Victor Martinez, C

4. Ryan Garko, 1B

5. Jhonny Peralta, SS

6. David Dellucci, DH

7. Casey Blake, 3B

8. Franklin Gutierrez, RF

9. Jamey Carroll, 2B

Starting pitcher: RH Paul Byrd

Progressive Field. First pitch: 6:05 p.m. (Central)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.