Sorry I couldn’t monitor things on the game thread today. I had to leave the park at 3:20, your time, to catch the last Air Canada flight to C-Town. That meant my story and notes needed to be pretty much done by the end of the game.

I just checked in the hotel. I could have spent another night in Toronto, one of my favorite road stops, but I felt it was more important to be close to the team as the trade deadline nears. I’m at the team hotel and will have a better chance to get to people if something goes down.

I was in the check-in line at the Toronto airport when I saw a very fit, sunglass-wearing fellow pushing a cart of bags, one with the number 31 on it. Yep, it was Darnell McDonald, who had just been sent back to Rochester. His flight was in the next gate to mine but about 20 minutes earlier. I wanted to wish him good luck but he was on the phone (I’m guessing to arrange a pick up at the Rochester airport). So we just did the Heineken double nod and went our separate ways. I’m glad he got a hit before he was sent back…. 

I fully expect Brian Buscher to join the team on Friday in Cleveland. He was removed after two at-bats tonight against Syracuse. This is a huge chance for Buscher, who was Rule 5 guy from the Giants org during the offseason.

How does Matt Moses feel now?

Buscher has 41 strikeouts in 360 at-bats, which is a good sign that he’ll put the ball in play. I’m curious to see what his glove is like because I’m getting varied reports. I’m haven’t seen him play, but I’m wondering if he can be an Olmedo Saenz-type with a tad more power.

On another note: Y’all need to calm down!

I was checking the blog on my phone while waiting for flights, and the conspiracy theorists about Torii Hunter coming out for McDonald were incredible. It was garbage time, folks. But it was entertaining reading.

Buy or sell? This question should be answered over the next three games. I’m leaning toward making moves for the future. I just don’t know if this team can sustain a run. The players keep talking about playing inconsistently, and sometimes that means they’re just not good enough. Each year is different, and this may be a year in which some things just don’t click (The Year of the Dead Crappies?).

The clubhouse is wondering what Terry Ryan is going to do. I’m starting to get asked by players what I’m hearing. All I could tell them was that the Phillies assistant GM made left Toronto - where he was watching Josh Towers - for the expressed purpose of watching Kevin Slowey pitch over the weekend for Rochester. And that the D-Rays had a scout at the Twins-Jays series (I’d love to see those reports).

I know the Twins don’t want any part of Pat Burrell, even if they eat 98 percent of his remaining contract. It got me thinking about players like Shane Victorino or Michael Bourn. Those are my thoughts and not based on any info I’ve received.

Anyway, I’ve got Cuddyer quoted in tomorrow’s paper saying it’s not the right approach to wait for the front office to provide the spark, the players must provide it. He’s right…it may be too late, but he’s right.

Gotta go, but I’ll leave you with this: As I write this, Syracuse is beating Rochester 8-1. That means:

Toronto organization: 21

Twins organization:      2

 

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The internet has been crashing throughout this series. It forced me to re-boot twice on Monday, adding to deadline pressure.

Today, I had a long entry written with the lineups and explanations. When I hit send, the internet crashed and I lost everything. So here’s the short version:

Twins: Castillo 2B, Tyner RF, Redmond C, Morneau DH, Hunter CF, Kubel LF, Cirillo 1B, L-Rod, 3B, Punto SS. Silva.

Jays: Clark 3B, Overbay 1B, Rios RF, Wells CF, Thomas DH, Stairs LF, Hill 2B, Zaun C, McDonald SS. Litsch.

Believe it or not, Torii Hunter was under the weather yesterday. He took two called strike threes but bounced back with a homer. And he feels worse today. His eyes are watery. He’s stuffed up and feels weak. “But I’m playin’ ” he said defiantly.

Rondell White said things went better than he expected Monday. He hadn’t seen major league pitching in over two months but didn’t feel his timing was that far off. He still isn’t doing much outfield work as he continues to work on his legs.

Joe Mauer will either DH or get tomorrow off. Mike Redmond, who popped his left middle knuckle last week, is well enough to start.

Ramon Ortiz was in the batting cage flipping balls to Luis Castillo. Anything to help, I guess. 

Lew Ford is in the lineup today. That’s all I have. We were busy trying to see if Gardy had heard anything about trades (he hadn’t) so figuring out why Ford was in wasn’t a priority.

Lineups:

Twins: 1. Castillo, 2B. 2. Bartlett, SS. 3. Mauer, C. 4. Morneau, 1B. 5. Hunter, CF. 6. Kubel, RF. 7. White, DH. 8. Ford, LF. 9. Punto, 3B. Pitching: Baker.

Toronto: 1. Johnson, LF. 2. Overbay, 1B. 3. Rios, RF. 4. Glaus, 3B. 5. Wells, CF. 6. Thomas, DH. 7. Hill, 2B. 8. Zaun, C. 9. McDonald, SS. Pitching: McGowan

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The visitor’s clubhouse at Rogers Centre has been moved into the old Toronto Argonauts’ clubhouse (The Argos have moved to another area of the stadium). The old clubhouse is now a big weight room. And that’s where many Twins players seemed to be after the game.

Never saw Torii Hunter. Never saw Rondell White. Talked to Johan Santana, who seemed rather disappointed. It seems like they are waiting for that switch to turn on but it’s not happening.

Wanted to stop the conspiracy theories from starting. Yes, the Blue Jays figured out how Santana tips his pitches a couple years ago. But tonight’s outing was just not good pitching from Johan. He felt the pitches to Reed Johnson and Alex Rios  were good ones, but the ones to Frank Thomas were terrible. He was supposed to pitch around Thomas in the fifth with first base open and just didn’t execute.

The Twins’ base running in the fifth was horrible. First. Jason Tyner is supposed to make sure he gets the right read on the ball off the bat. There’s a good chance Luis Castillo beats out the double play attempt, and there’s still two runners on base. But Tyner broke early and was caught. And Punto should have stayed at second. It was a mess.

Punto is in a rut, getting picked off base, getting caught in rundowns and not getting bunts down.

For anyone who cares. Dwayne Roloson was at the game and chatted with Justin Morneau afterward. About a dozen Canadian reporters were in formation at his clubhouse stall, and here’s Morneau gabbing away with Rollie.

Rondell White is here, but admittedly is not at 100 percent. Gardy said that he’ll take it slow with White for a few games, so there’s no immediate plans to use him in the outfield. And no one knows what shape his swing is in.

Tyner is in because lefties are little better off Marcum (.253) than righties (.200).

Twins: 1. Castillo, 2B. 2. Bartlett, SS. 3. Mauer, C. 4. Morneau, 1B. 5. Hunter, CF. 6. Kubel, LF. 7. White, DH. 8.Tyner, RF. 9. Punto, 3B. Pitching: Santana.

Jays: 1. Johnson, LF. 2. Rios, RF. 3. Glaus, 3B. 4. Wells, CF. 5. Thomas, DH. 6. Hill, 2B. 7. Stairs, 1B. 8. Thigpen, C. 9. Clayton, SS. Pitching: Marcum.