Jesse Crain is back and is available tonight. He will immediately join Jose Mijares as late-inning set up men.

Alexi Casilla is back in the lineup as he fights to find his 2008 form.

Joe Crede never had an injury concern after Saturday’s slide into second base. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Saturday’s game was long and Crede was coming off a little sleep after going to Missouri to be with his family for the premature birth of their son (the ventillator was taken off today, by the way). So Gardy held Crede out of Sunday’s game.

Crede, by the way, leads all opponents in home runs at Comerica Park. Here’s the list through 2008 - I think Dye and Konerko both homered here last month. Will check:

Update: Yes, Dye and Konerko homered here last month, so here is the updated list:

1. Joe Crede        15
   Jermaine Dye 15
3. David Ortiz     13
4. Jim Thome     12
    Paul Konerko  12

Crede is a career .294 hitter at Comerica Park.

Finally, the lineup. Gardy is comfortable bunching his left-handed hitters together. He said Michael Cuddyer is starting to hit better and would be a candidate to hit between Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel - but not yet. He thinks Kubel, right now, protects Morneau better then Cuddy.

I would have put Cuddyer between them and make the opponent decide late in games to switch pitchers or let Cuddy hit vs a lefty. But Gardenhire has won a few more games than me. 

Twins (12-13)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Jason Kubel, DH
6. Joe Crede, 3B
7. Michael Cuddyer, RF
8. Delmon Young, LF
9. Nick Punto, SS

Pitching: Francisco Liriano

Tigers (13-11)

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Placido Polanco, 2B
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Carlos Guillen, LF
6. Gerald Laird, C
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Ryan Raburn, DH
9. Adam Everett, SS

Pitching: Edwin Jackson

Stay tuned for a very special, Justin Morneau-related blog. No news, but potentially entertaining

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 3:31 pm 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.