The Royals beat the White Sox 9-7 this afternoon, so the Twins can move into first place tonight with a win over Cleveland.

No Gardy tonight, as I posted earlier. He didn’t even do an official pre-game presser. I guess he really didn’t want to talk about his suspension. So I will.

You had to guess Gardy was in trouble for getting the fans fired up enough to toss things on the field following his seventh-inning rant on Thursday. But the White Sox may deserve some of the blame. 

Two players and two coaches confirmed that they saw White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen laugh after Gardy kicked his cap, then Guillen and other Chicago coaches tossed their hats out in front of the visitor’s dugout.

It sounds like it was all in good fun, but the Twins believe the two events led to fans tossing stuff on the field, not just Gardy’s actions. The club feels Gardy shouldn’t have to serve a suspension. Personally, I felt the league was going to come down on Gardy as soon as Guillen pulled his team off the field.

On to other stuff

Michael Cuddyer looks on his way to Class AAA Rochester on Monday for a bunch of rehab games, then will join the team when it returns from next week’s road trip to Seattle and Kansas City.

Mauer hit some bombs today during batting practice. He must be feeling pretty good.

Was told that Francisco Liriano had an excellent bullpen session on Friday.  Pitching coach Rick Anderson said Liriano’s confidence, command and trust in his stuff are all back.

My flight to Seattle leaves at 2 p.m. Sunday, so I’m going to miss the game. I’m really bummed out about that.

Lineups

Tribe (47-61): 1. Grady Sizemore, CF. 2. David Dellucci, DH. 3. Ben Francisco, RF. 4. Jhonny Peralta, SS. 5. Shin-Soo Choo, LF. 6. Kelly Shoppach, C. 7. Ryan Garko, 1B. 8. Andy Marte, 3B. 9. Asdrubal Cabrera, 2B. Pitching: Paul Byrd.

Twins (61-48): 1. Denard Span, RF. 2. Nick Punto, 2B. 3. Joe Mauer, C. 4. Justin Morneau, 1B. 5. Jason Kubel, DH. 6. Delmon Young, LF. 7. Brian Buscher, 3B. 8. Brendan Harris. SS. 9. Carlos Gomez, CF. Pitching: Kevin Slowey.

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