As it turns out, Paul Schrieber, the home plate umpire yesterday,  had root canal surgery before working the game.

I wondered why he would still call a game. A couple Twins players told me that it’s like them playing with minor injuries - you don’t want to be considered a wimp. And there are different levels of root canals, I guess.

Don’t know if that affected his judgement last night. All I know is that I screamed, `that is NOT a strike,” at the television about five times.

Joe Mauer is catching today after being the designated hitter last night. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has picked the rights times to DH his all-star catcher. Mauer DH’d the rainfest in Baltimore and yesterday. “I have dodged a couple of bullets,” Mauer said this morning.

I walked into the Twins clubhouse at 9:02 a.m. Michael Cuddyer was the only player to have reported. Jerry White and Joe Vavra were the first coaches to arrive. There were stories about people not being able to fall asleep until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. I think White mumbled something about 5 a.m. It as a night for sleeping fast.

Delmon Young hasn’t felt well the past couple of days, and today he has a migraine.  Gardenhire said he was laid out in the trainer’s room before the game.

Tigers (17-15)

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Ramon Santiago, 2B
3. Magglio Ordonez, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Jeff Larish, DH
6. Clete Thomas, LF
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Adam Everett, SS
9. Dane Sardinha,  C

Pitching: Justin Verlander

Twins (17-17)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Matt Tolbert, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, DH (M & M boys 19-for-50 vs Verlander)
5. Jason Kubel, LF
6. Michael Cuddyer, RF
7. Joe Crede, 3B
8. Brian Buscher, 1B
9. Nick Punto, SS

Pitching: Scott Baker

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 11:08 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.