Jason Bartlett looks ready to play Wednesday after another good pre-game workout today.

Both Jason Kubel and Garrett Jones are in the lineup against Seattle lefty Jarrod Washburn.

 

Seattle: 1. Ichiro, CF. 2. Vidro, DH. 3. Guillen, RF. 4. Ibanez, LF. 5. Beltre, 3B. 6. Sexson, 1B. 7. Johjima, C. 8. Lopez, 2B. Betancourt, SS. Pitching: Jarrod Washburn.

Twins: 1.  Casilla, 2B. 2. Mauer, C. 3. Hunter, CF. 4. Morneau, 1B. 5. Cuddyer, RF. 6. Kubel, LF. 7. Watkins, 3B. 8. Jones, DH. 9. Punto, SS. Pitching: Baker.

Guys are still chatting about Johan The Great’s outing yesterday.

“He was throwing an invisiball.” righthander Scott Baker said.

Catcher Mike Redmond said he was waiting for Texas hitters to force them to use Santana’s slider, but his fastball and change were so effective he just kept calling them. That allowed Santana to the put the slider, which causes him cracked nails and blisters, in his back pocket.

“His change up had that downward movement and looked just like his fastball,” Redmond said.

I have covered three no hitters in my career. Kansas Citiy’s Bret Saberhagen against the White Sox. David Wells’ perfect game against the Twins, and Eric Milton’s no-no against Anaheim.  I watched Sunday’s game on television, but I felt like I was watching a no-hitter as Santana dominated. Texas hitters, the last three innings, looked like they were about to get hit by a train when they dug in against Johan the Great.

I think we all agree that it was Santana’s best gave ever. 

Santana was named AL player of the week following his signature performance.

In other news….

The Twins have played seven 1-0 games this season and are 3-4 in them.

Torii Hunter is batting .354 this month. 

Joe Mauer, who could use a big series, is batting .471 against the Mariners this season.

Lineups

Seattle: 1. Ichiro, CF. 2. Vidro, DH. 3. Guillen, RF. 4. Ibanez, LF. 5. Beltre, 3B. 6. Sexson, 1B. 7. Johjima, C. 8. Lopez, 2B. 9. Betancourt, SS. Pitching: Horacio Ramirez 

Twins:  1. Casilla, 2B. 2. Mauer, C. 3. Hunter, CF. 4. Morneau, 1B. 5. Cuddy, RF. 6. Redmond, DH. 7. White, LF. 8. Watkins, 3B. 9. Punto, SS.   Pitching: Matt Garza.

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Rangers: 1. Catalanotto, LF. 2. Kinsler, 2B. 3. Young, SS. 4. Byrd, CF. 5. Botts, DH. 6. Cruz, RF. 7. Wilkerson, 1B. 8. Salty, C. Vazquez, 3B. Pitching: Gabbard.

Twins: 1. Casilla, 2B. 2. Punto, SS. 3. Mauer, C. 4. Hunter, CF. 5. Morneau, 1B. 6. Cuddyer, RF. 7. White, LF. 8. Redmond, DH. 9. Watkins, 3B. Pitching: Silva.

 

Running a little late today, but the main problem is that I took my computer in yesterday so the techs could update it. Now my internet is slow and crashing, and my link and login info for the blog creation site were lost.

Garrett Jones will replace Ramon Ortiz on the Twins’ 25-man roster. He’ll give the Twins an option at DH. first base and left field.

Jones is batting .280 with 13 homers and 70 RBI at Rochester. After batting .333 in July, he’s hitting just .228 with a .313 on base percentage and .351 slugging percentage.

Both Jason Bartlett and Jason Kubel were doing much better on Thursday, so the Twins will wait a couple days before making a DL decision.

The Twins also claimed infielder Chris Basak off waivers from the Yankees. Basak, 28, was batting .254 at Scranton-Wilkes Barre but has appeared in five games with the Yankees this season. Basak gives them another utility option down the road. He’s a career .264 hitter in the minors with little pop, so don’t expect much

The funny part about this is that the Yankees were moving him through waivers to make room for one of their late draft signings who got a major league deal before yesterday’s deadline.

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I remember a game I covered about, boy, 12 years ago for the Kansas City Star when the Royals were at Texas. The Rangers won 2-1, but Royals righthander Mark Gubicza went all nine innings.

After the game, I went up to Goobie and said, “Are you pleased with how you threw despite the loss?”

“What?!” Gubicza replied. “I didn’t do my job! If we lose 1-0, and I pitched in that game, THAT MEANS I SUCK.”

I stopped asking that sort of question. But in recent years, I’ve been in clubhouses all over the league when pitchers  talked about how well they threw despite the loss. “I did my job. I put the team in position to win, and that’s all I can hope for,” has become a cliche’.

Last week, the Twins lost 1-0 in Kansas City to Kyle Davies and the Royals. Afterward, we asked Matt Garza if he was pleased with his outing.

“No, you want to win,” Garza said. “Quality starts go out the door. It really doesn’t matter. We are here for a pennant race. I’m not here to pad my stats. I’m here to ge this team as far into a game as I can and give us a chance to win. I obviously didn’t do that today.”

It was refreshing to hear a pitcher take responsibility for giving up a run. That’s one more thing to like about Garza, a massively-talented righthander who one day may be a top-of-the-rotation mainstay.

Just something to think about tonight while watching the Twins and Mariners play.

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