Twins DH Jason Kubel was scratched from today’s lineup with a swollen left knee.

“The bad one,” he said.

That’s the knee he tore three ligaments in during Arizona Fall League play in 2004. But Kubel chuckled while commenting, a sign that he doesn’t feel it’s serious.

Kubel said he tweaked his knee in the first inning Thursday while chasing a ball down in the outfield then fouled a pitch off of it later in the game. “It’s pretty swollen,” he said.

Kubel will ice and ride a bike to keep the knee loose, and is available to pinch hit if needed.

That led to a mini-overhaul of the Twins lineup, as Joe Crede moved to DH and Michael Cuddyer into the four-hole. 

The Twins went 1-6 on their road trip but outscored opponents 42-35 - thanks to the 20-1 Thursday afternoon massacre of the White Sox.

Still, it was the first any team won only one game of a road trip of at least seven games and outscored opponents. That team was the 1973 Twins, who went 1-6 but outscored opponents 27-26.

Yesterday’s game was the first time in 21 games at Chicago that the Twins didn’t give up a home run.

Tom Kelly is in uniform tonight, hitting grounders during batting practice. He’s replacing Scott Ullger, who will miss a couple of days while attending his daughter’s college graduation.

Lineups:

Brewers (26-15)

1. Craig Counsell, 2B
2. J.J. Hardy, SS
3. Ryan Braun, LF
4. Prince Fielder, 1B
5. Mike Cameron, CF
6. Cory Hart, RF
7. Mat Gamel, DH
8. Casey McGehee, 3B
9. Jason Kendall, C

Pitching: Manny Parra, LHP

 Twins (19-23)

1. Denard Span, LF
2. Joe Mauer, C
3. Justin Morneau, 1B
4. Michael Cuddyer, RF
5. Joe Crede, DH
6. Brendan Harris, 3B
7. Carlos Gomez, CF
8. Matt Tolbert, 2B
9. Nick Punto, SS

Pitching: Kevin Slowey, RHP

This entry was posted on Friday, May 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 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.