The Twins will have to go at least a couple days without first baseman Justin Morneau, who is headed back to the Twin Cities tonight to see a ear nose and throat specialist.

Morneau, who has been bothered by an inner ear infection for several days, said he feels fine when he’s still for awhile but begins to feel off-balance when  he tries to move around.

He sat on the bench during Wednesday’s game and felt better. He even thought he could pinch hit. But he tried to move around and the dizziness came back.

“Nothing has changed,” he said.

He was given medication in Texas and told that it would start to work in 24 hours.

“It has not,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Now we go to the next level.”

Gardenhire is holding out hope that Morneau can join the team this weekend in Kansas City. But considering how Denard Span struggled with a similar problem, a longer recovery is possible. And that would mean a trip to the disabled list.

The only difference between Morneau’s and Span’s cases is that Span ended  up seeing a thyroid specialist. Morneau hasn’t reached that point yet. But the ENT specialist could recommend that.

There’s never a good time for something like this. But this cripples a team that’s holding onto hopes it can get  back in the postseason picture.

So Michael Cuddyer is back at first base. Joe Mauer, who took two foul tips off him last night, thought a DH day was a good idea.

Jose Mijares a few days ago, had a son born in Venezuela. His name is Javier Alejandro Mijares.

And Texas’ lineup got a little stronger today. They just activated Nelson Cruz.

One more thing: Now the Silver Slugger people are saying the only reason Huff was listed as a DH was that he won the award at that position in the past. I just hope it’s not the actual ballot. Will check tommorrow.

Lineups

Twins (58-62)

1. Deanrd Span, RF
2. Orlando Cabrera, SS
3. Joe Mauer, DH
4. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
5. Joe Crede, 3B
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Mike Redmond, C
8. Carlos Gomez, CF
9. Nick Punto, 2B

Pitching: Swarzak

Rangers (67-52)

1. Julio Borbon, DH
2. Michael Young, 3B
3. Josh Hamilton, CF
4. Marlon Byrd, LF
5. Ian Kinsler, 2B
6. Nelson Cruz, RF
7. Hank Blalock, 1B
8. Taylor Teagarden, C
9. Elvis Andrus,  SS

Pitching: Derek Holland, LHP

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 5:11 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.