Opening Night starting lineups: Twins vs. Mariners
Posted on April 6th, 2009 – 2:50 PMBy Joe Christensen
Delmon Young will be on the bench for the Twins’ opener tonight, as Manager Ron Gardenhire’s starting lineup has Denard Span in left field, Carlos Gomez in center and Michael Cuddyer in right.
Obviously, someone had to sit. We’ll have more on this and other updates as they come.
Update: The Twins are wearing their 1982 throwback uniforms tonight. Red hats, the whole works.
Update: Twins bullpen coach Rick Stelmaszek is at the hospital getting up after feeling groggy in recent days. Stelmaszek, 60, has been in this same job since 1981, the last season at Met Stadium, so he has been here for every previous home opener at the Dome.
“He’s going to be disappointed he’s missing the opener, and we are too because he’s been here longer than all of us,” Gardenhire said. “But the thing here is really his health. It’s about taking care of him.”
Tom Kelly was in uniform during batting practice, wearing his customary No. 10. He’ll be part of the pregame ceremony, but we haven’t heard if he’ll be in the bullpen, filling in for Stelmaszek.
(*) Gardenhire bristled at the first question regarding the Young decision.
“It’s just going to be that all year long, off and on,” Gardenhire said. “We could sit here and do this every game because we’re going to mix them up. We talked about it beforehand.
“You’ve got a nasty pitcher out on the mound [Felix Hernandez]. Span’s going to be my leadoff hitter against this guy tonight. Delmon will probably be back out there against a lefty [Erik Bedard on Tuesday]. And it’s not a left-right thing. I’m going to mix and match as best I can.
“I want Span leading off against this guy. We have to make him work and take some pitches, and he does that.”
We’ll have more from Gardenhire in tonight’s first editions.
MARINERS
1. Endy Chavez, LF
2. Franklin Gutierrez, CF
3. Mike Sweeney, DH
4. Adrian Beltre, 3B
5. Ken Griffey Jr., RF
6. Jose Lopez, 2B
7. Russell Branyan, 1B
8. Kenji Johjima, C
9. Yuniesky Betancourt, SS
Starting pitcher: RH Felix Hernandez
TWINS
1. Denard Span, LF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Michael Cuddyer, RF
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Jason Kubel, DH
6. Joe Crede, 3B
7. Carlos Gomez, CF
8. Mike Redmond, C
9. Nick Punto, SS
Starting pitcher: LH Francisco Liriano
Metrodome. First pitch: 7:10 p.m.


