BALTIMORE — The Twins are 0-9 in road games against the AL East, as noted by La Velle today.

They hope to change that here at Camden Yards, where they struggled until going 8-2 the past two years.

It’s raining here, and rain is forecast through the evening, so I’ll keep you posted here with any updates.

Update (4:50 p.m.): It’s sprinkling now. People seem confident this game will go on as scheduled. I remember nights like this here, where the rain washes out batting practice, and the game goes off without a hitch. So we’ll see.

Also, the Twins lost a coin flip to the White Sox to determine home-field advantage in the event of a one-game playoff, should they end up tied at the end of the regular season. So if it’s all tied after the games on Sept. 28, the Twins will play at U.S. Cellular Field on Sept. 29, with the winner advancing to the Division Series.

The Twins also lost a coin flip to the Red Sox, in case there’s a tie for the wild card, so that one-game playoff would be at Fenway Park.

Update (5:25 p.m.): As you’ve probably read, the White Sox already plan to alter their rotation so Javier Vazquez, Mark Buehrle and Gavin Floyd will pitch in the three-game series at the Metrodome, Sept. 23-25.

To do this, Vazquez is pitching on three-day’s rest Saturday.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire announced no such plans.

“We don’t have that luxury,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of young pitchers here getting up around 200 innings apiece, and we’re going to stay with what got us here and go from there. Try to protect their arms and all those things.”

The Twins have an off day on Sept. 22, so they can definitely tinker. If they decide to keep everyone in line, the three pitchers against the White Sox would be the same as this series against the Orioles — Scott Baker, Glen Perkins and Nick Blackburn.

“We’ve got a day off before that,” Gardenhire said. “We might be able to make a change then, if we need to.”

Update (5:55 p.m.): They have made no official announcements here, but this game won’t start on time. The tarp is still on the field, and the pitchers have not begun their warm-ups.

Update (6 p.m.): Also, O’s RHP Jeremy Guthrie has been pulled from Saturday’s start with a sore elbow. The Orioles will use LHP Garrett Olson on Saturday, with LHP Brian Burres expected to pitch Sunday.

Correction, the O’s will start RHP Radhames Liz on Sunday.

The Twins are catching a break because Guthrie has been their best starter.

Update (6:02 p.m.): They just announced an expected starting time of 6:35 p.m.

Update (6:25 p.m.): No new announcements but the ground crew was just about to roll up the tarp and changed its mind.

Update (6:55 p.m.): No new announcements — other than that the game is being delayed by inclement weather, duh. But the ground crew just left the field. It’s raining harder again, and I get the feeling, this one might get rained out.

Twins (80-66)

1. Denard Span, RF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Jason Kubel, DH
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Brian Buscher, 3B
8. Nick Punto, SS
9. Carlos Gomez, CF

Starting pitcher: Scott Baker (8-4, 3.66 ERA)

Orioles (65-80)

1. Brian Roberts, 2B
2. Adam Jones, CF
3. Nick Markakis, RF
4. Aubrey Huff, DH
5. Ramon Hernandez, C
6. Luke Scott, LF
7. Kevin Millar, 1B
8. Oscar Salazar, 3B
9. Juan Castro, SS

Starting pitcher: Daniel Cabrera (8-9, 5.26)

Camden Yards. First pitch: 6:05 p.m.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 3:18 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.