CLEVELAND — Twins righthander Nick Blackburn pitched seven terrific innings against a hot-hitting Cleveland squad, and Justin Morneau smashed his fourth home run, but a quiet force in Friday night’s 5-1 victory was catcher Jose Morales.

He went 2-for-4 with an RBI, lifting his average to .286, and one of his outs was a smash to second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera.

Beyond that, Morales helped coax Blackburn through some tricky spots.

“He can hit. We know that,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “The catching is something he’s learning, and this is a tough place to learn, but he’s handling himself real nice. He studies the teams. We talked about a couple of situations with lefthanders up there, not giving in and using all your pitches, and he understands that a little bit better.”

Morales, 26, is probably headed back to Class AAA Rochester when Joe Mauer returns from the disabled list, but Morales is making that decision tougher on the Twins. He has started three of the past four games, with veteran Mike Redmond batting .214 after an early season groin injury.

“This is a good run for the young man,” Gardenhire said. “He’s showing us he can play up here. We were hoping that, and he’s doing really good, so we’ll see what happens when Joe gets up here.”

Mauer had two run-scoring hits for Class A Fort Myers on Friday, going 2-for-4 with a double. He caught seven innings and didn’t allow a stolen base, though he did have a passed ball. Still, the reports have been encouraging, and it sounds like Mauer will be ready to return by next Friday, if not earlier.

His return could spell the end of this big league stint for Morales, but Morales isn’t sweating that.

“Like I always say, we’re talking about Joe Mauer — the best catcher in baseball,” Morales said. “It’s out of my hands, I can’t control that. I control trying to go out there and do the best I can, and hopefully it takes care of itself.”

CLEVELAND — Nick Blackburn went 3-0 with a 1.30 ERA in four starts against Cleveland last year, and the Twins will look for more of that success tonight as the teams open a three-game series at Progressive Field.

A spectacular day here weather-wise, and it’s shaping up to be a nice weekend, so this should be a good early season test for the Twins, who are 1-4 on the road.

Updates to come…

Update: Henry Sanchez, the Twins’ first-round sandwich pick from the 2005 draft, has been suspended 50 games for testing positive to a drug of abuse under baseball’s Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

Sanchez, 22, is playing for Class A Beloit this season. In five years of professional baseball, he has batted .210 with eight home runs and 140 strikeouts in 343 at-bats.

Update: Joe Mauer is expected to catch seven innings for Class A Fort Myers tonight, officially beginning his minor-league rehab stint, as he recovers from an inflamed right sacroiliac joint.

All signs have been positive. Mauer hopes to catch seven innings again Saturday, testing himself by catching back-to-back games, and then serve as the designated hitter on Sunday before catching nine innings Monday.

The Twins are still targeting a May 1 return for Mauer, and Manager Ron Gardenhire downplayed the chances of speeding that up even if everything keeps going well.

“He didn’t do anything all winter and didn’t do anything all spring, and now all of a sudden, he’s caught 12 innings, and everybody wants to move the schedule up,” Gardenhire said. “He’s caught 12 innings of baseball [entering Friday], and everybody says this guy’s ready.”

TWINS (7-9)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Justin Morneau, 1B
4. Jason Kubel, DH
5. Joe Crede, 3B
6. Michael Cuddyer, RF
7. Delmon Young, LF
8. Jose Morales, C
9. Nick Punto, SS

Starting pitcher: RH Nick Blackburn

INDIANS (6-10)

1. Grady Sizemore, CF
2. Mark DeRosa 3B
3. Victor Martinez, C
4. Travis Hafner, DH
5. Jhonny Peralta, SS
6. Shin-Soo Choo, RF
7. Ryan Garko, 1B
8. Ben Francisco, LF
9. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B

Starting pitcher: RH Fausto Carmona

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

CLEVELAND — Joe Mauer will officially begin his minor-league rehab stint on Friday, playing for Class A Fort Myers at Palm Beach, a Twins spokesman said today.

Mauer, who is on the disabled list with an inflamed right sacroiliac joint, remains on pace to rejoin the Twins on May 1. He is expected to play six games with the Fort Myers Miracle.

Mauer went 2-for-6 with a double and an RBI as the designated hitter in an extended spring training game today and will likely catch for the Miracle on Friday. He has been catching every other day.

BOSTON – By the end, Francisco Liriano had dug the Twins too big of a hole, just as Scott Baker had in Game 1.

The Twins did show signs of life offensively in Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader against the Red Sox. It just doesn’t show in the box score, as Brad Penny and three relievers held them to three runs on six hits.

By my count, the Twins lined into six outs (including two double plays) and had two hard-hit balls caught on the center field warning track.

Nick Punto (0-for-3) lined out twice, Denard Span (2-for-4) once, and Brendan Harris (0-for-4) once. Jason Kubel (1-for-4) had one drive caught by Jacoby Ellsbury on the warning track, as did Delmon Young (1-for-2).

The balls hit by Kubel and Young would have been home runs in a lot of ballparks. Justin Morneau hit one home run (No. 3 of the season) out near the 420-foot sign in center field, and his double off the left-center field wall in the sixth would have been out in several ballparks.

“We hit a bunch of rockets at people, and they turned into outs,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “But when you keep swinging like that, good things are going to happen.”

Good things will only happen if the Twins get better starting pitching, though. The Twins pitched much better against the Angels last weekend, but Liriano and Baker are a combined 0-6 with a 8.61 ERA. Yikes.

Note: Flying to Cleveland today and have a pile of writing to do for the weekend, so unless there’s news, I probably won’t have anything new on the blog until Friday’s lineups are posted.

BOSTON — The tarp remains on the field at Fenway Park, and there’s a strong chance they won’t play Game 2 of this series until mid-afternoon Thursday.

But the lineups have been posted.

Note: The Red Sox have a six-game winning streak now. Stay tuned for weather updates…

Update (5:30 p.m.): They removed the tarp and are working on the field! The word is they’re going to try to start at 6:15 p.m. (Central). The forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of rain around game time, though, so stay tuned…

Update (5:40 p.m.): Raining again. The ground crew put aside their rakes and put the tarp back on.

Update (5:50 p.m.): Brad Penny is playing catch in the outfield. The Twins are hauling equipment out to the bullpen. (Another good sign), but … that rain keeps falling. Meantime, be sure to check out La Velle’s minor-league notebook.

Update (6 p.m.): Penny stopped playing catch. Francisco Liriano strolled out to the bullpen, but now everyone out there is cooped up under the overhangs. The Red Sox just announced the start of the game will be delayed (shocker). For what it’s worth the Red Sox were scheduled to wear some interesting Earth Day uniforms — all white with green lettering, and the recycling symbol on the sleeve.

Update (6:30 p.m.): The Red Sox just announced that they’re shooting for a 6:55 first pitch. They are removing the tarp as I write this, and the pitchers are loosening up again. Players, too!

Update (6:57 p.m.): Game on! Unbelievable. I’m almost as good about predicting these things as I am at predicting the AL Central standings.

TWINS (7-8)
1. Denard Span, LF
2. Brendan Harris, 2B
3. Justin Morneau, 1B
4. Jason Kubel, DH
5. Michael Cuddyer, RF
6. Brian Buscher, 3B
7. Delmon Young, LF
8. Jose Morales, C
9. Nick Punto, SS

Starting pitcher: LH Francisco Liriano

RED SOX (8-6)

1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B
3. David Ortiz, DH
4. Kevin Youkilis, 3B
5. J.D. Drew, RF
6. Jason Bay, LF
7. Jason Varitek, C
8. Jeff Bailey, 1B
9. Nick Green, SS

Starting pitcher: RH Brad Penny

Fenway Park. First pitch: 6:10 p.m. (Central)