Not much going on before the game. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire’s pre-game presser dealt with Morneau snapping out of his slump, Joe Crede getting a DH day vs Oakland, Carl Pavano getting on the same page with catcher Jose Morales and Denard Span’s value to the team.

I tried to blog about Pavano after the game but my computer crashed and I gave up. It was Morales’ first time catching Pavano, and the two took a while to get going yesterday.

“We battled each other a little bit,” Pavano said,“but that’s part of getting to know each other, the catcher-pitcher relationship.”

Span’s value is obvious. He played all three outfield positions last night for the first time in his career, and no one on the team can lead off like him. It’s a good thing Gardy had Span work out all over the outfield during spring training.

By the way, the Baseball World Cup is underway - yes, such a thing exists. Australia, with Luke Hughes and James Beresford in the lineup, waxed the Czech Republic in Prague in the opener yesterday.

The Twins lead all organizations with 10 players in the tournament. You can keep up with it here. Trevor Plouffe and Team USA play tonight against Venezuela.

Lineups

Twins (70-69)

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

Pitching: Scott, Baker, RHP

Toronto (62-77)

1. Joe Inglett, 2B
2. Travis Snider, RF
3. Adam Lind, LF
4. Lyle Overbay, 1B
5. Edwin Encarnacion, 3B
6. Randy Ruiz, DH
7. Jose Bautista, CF
8. Raul Chavez, C
9. John McDonald, SS

Pitching: Brett Cecil, LHP

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 10:14 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.