Twins catcher Joe Mauer took a few swings before the game and declared himself fit to play. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire waited until Mauer gave him the O.K. to fill out the lineup - which didn’t happen until less than an hour ago. That’s why this is so late.

Brendan Harris is starting at short and batting second. Nick Punto had two hits last night but hasn’t been very good since coming off the disabled list. Maybe this will shake things up.

Randy Ruiz in at DH - hope he runs through the first base bag :). It’s bad enough when players dive into first, but the feet-first slide yesterday was something I’ve never seen.

Derek Jeter is out for the Yanks with a sore left instep. He had X-Rays taken after last night’s game, during which he fouled a ball off the foot.

The bullpen is close to being gassed. Matt Guerrier needs a break, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.  Kevin Slowey needs a long outing today. And the rest of the rotation needs to step up. It’s been obvious for weeks that the Twins need bullpen help, but if they aren’t going to get it they have to solve this problem in-house. And the best way to solve it in-house is to keep the bullpen in the bullpen.

UPDATE: The Twins did put in a waiver claim on lefthander Alan Embree - and it wasn’t to block him from another team. The A’s pulled him back, but it’s unknown as of right now if the A’s and Twins talked. Sometimes a team will pull a player off waivers without a phone conversation. Oakland might have been trying to run him through waivers so they could trade him to anyone.

And it’s not known who Embree would have replaced in the bullpen if the Twins dealt for him - it would be hard to imagine the Twins with three lefties in the bully.  Embree, 38, is making $3 million this year with a 2009 club option for $3 million.

Lineups

Yankees (64-56): 1. Johnny Damon, LF. 2. Bobby Abreu, DH. 3. Alex Rodriguez, 3B. 4. Jason Giambi, 1B. 5. Xavier Nady, RF. 6. Robinson Cano, 2B. 7. Ivan Rodriguez, C. 8. Wilson Betemit, SS. 9. Melky Cabrera, CF. Pitching: Darrell Rasner.

Twins (66-53): 1. Denard Span, CF. 2. Brendan Harris, SS. 3. Joe Mauer, C. 4. Justin Morneau, 1B. 5. Jason Kubel, RF. 6. Delmon Young, LF. 7. Brian Buscher, 3B. 8. Randy Ruiz, DH. 9. Nick Punto. Pitching: Kevin Slowey.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 11:48 am and is filed under Game threads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.