The Minnesota Twins are a struggling ball club right now. Only the Boston Red Sox currently have fewer victories than the Twins do, and the team has lost their last four games. The offense has also yet to score more than five runs in any of their fourteen ball games this year, and their 41 runs scored are currently the lowest total in the big leagues
Minnesota will look to get back on the right track today against a Tampa Bay Rays team that has beaten them four consecutive times. . .prior to this weekend series, the Rays had yet to win a game at Tropicana Field. Twins' closer Joe Nathan has blown saves in two of the three games in this series, and has been replaced as the closer's role by Matt Capps.
Heading to the mound today for Minnesota is left-hander Brian Duensing (0-0, 4.15 ERA). The Twins have won both of Duensing's starts this season, though he hasn't figured in either decision. The Rays will counter with right-hander Jeremy Hellickson (1-1, 4.09), who won his Major League debut against the Twins last season.
Ron Gardenhire, in yet another attempt to get some offense going, has made a few changes to his lineup. . .including giving Justin Morneau the day off. This would seem to be antithetical to scoring more runs, but hey. . .I'm not the Manager of the Year or anything.
Matt Tolbert, second base
Alexi Casilla, shortstop
Jason Kubel, right field
Jim Thome, designated hitter
Delmon Young, left field
Michael Cuddyer, first base
Danny Valencia, third base
Steve Holm, catcher
Jason Repko, center field
Well, that lineup is. . .ummmmm, different, to say the least. Will be interesting to see how that works out for the Twins this afternoon.
First pitch from Tropicana Field is scheduled for 12:40 PM Central time.