He’s 1-for-22 over his past five games.

He has two extra base hits this month - and those came in the same game.

And he caught 12 innings on Sunday.

So it was the right time to hold Joe Mauer out of today’s starting lineup, leaving everyone to mourn the realization that Mauer isn’t an emotionless automaton who hits and hits and hits.

“Maybe he’ll have a game-winning hit in the eighth or ninth inning (as a pinch hitter) and we’ll go from there,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “What would be better if he takes a night off and we score 14 runs.” 

Kevin Slowey threw in the bullpen and will do so again on Wednesday. If that goes well, he’ll start at Rochester on Saturday.

Joe Crede (shoulder) is still working the soreness out of his a/c joint but they expect him to be ready in a couple days.

The Twins arrived at  the team hotel at 3 a.m. so there’s no batting practice scheduled today.

The A’s have placed Jason Giambi on the 15-day disabled list with a right quad strain.  He’s batting .193-11-40 this year. Ouch. Daric Barton will replace him on the roster.

Lineups

Twins (47-45)

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

Pitching: Nick Blackburn, RHP 

Oakland (38-52)

1, Adam Kennedy, 3B
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Scott Hairston, CF
4. Matt Holiday, LF
5. Jack Cust, DH
6. Kurt Suzuki, C
7. Daric Barton, 1B
8. Ryan Sweeney, RF
9. Mark Ellis, 2B

Pitching: Gio Gonzalez, LHP

NOTE: The Twins are 2-12 on the road against lefties - their only two wins coming here at the worst outdoor stadium in baseball.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 7:17 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.