NEW YORK — Joe Crede is back in the lineup for the Twins for the first time since leaving Friday’s game with lower-back spasms.

Crede is batting fifth, as Manager Ron Gardenhire has shuffled his lineup a bit heading into tonight’s match-up against Yankees lefthander Andy Pettitte.

Update: Delmon Young will not return to the Twins until Friday, at the earliest, as he visits his ailing mother in California. The Twins want him to take all the time he needs, so he will miss the upcoming series in Chicago.

Young has better numbers than any Twin against Pettitte — 9-for-14 (.643).

Gardenhire said his lineup adjustments — specifically moving Crede ahead of Kubel — are more related to facing Pettitte, so they don’t sound permanent. But the Twins will face lefthanders Mark Buehrle and John Danks the next two games, so if it works tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised if Gardenhire stuck with it for a while.

TWINS (18-20)

1. Denard Span, LF
2. Brendan Harris, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Joe Crede, 3B
6. Jason Kubel, DH
7. Michael Cuddyer, RF
8. Carlos Gomez, CF
9. Nick Punto, SS

Starting pitcher: LH Glen Perkins (1-2, 4.27 ERA)

YANKEES (20-17)

1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Johnny Damon, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez, DH
5. Nick Swisher, RF
6. Robinson Cano, 2B
7. Melky Cabrera, CF
8. Ramiro Pena, 3B
9. Francisco Cervelli, C

Starting pitcher: LH Andy Pettitte (3-1, 4.00 ERA)

Yankee Stadium. First pitch: 6:05 p.m. (Central)

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 2:56 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.