Twins-Blue Jays lineups posted after memorable night for Mitch Garver

TORONTO -- It was a 3-1 fastball. And Mitch Garver was looking for it.

Manna. From. Heaven.

Garver put a powerful, slightly uppercut swing on the fastball from Toronto's Aaron Sanchez on Wednesday night. And, 424 feet later, it was a two-run homer and the latest long ball by a Twins catcher.

"That's probably one of the better feelings in the world," Garver said. "He was beating me up a little bit tonight. He has good stuff. I respect the way he throws the ball. He is hard to hit. The ball explodes out of his hand. So I was cheating a little bit to that one.

"I was happy to get it in the air because he had gotten underneath my barrel a couple of times. I wanted to get it in the air."

Here are the lineups for the 6 p.m. game at Rogers Centre, with Garver hitting seventh.

Twins catchers currently are the most productive in baseball, with a league-high 12 home runs and a 1.147 on base-plus-slugging percentage. Garver has seven home runs. Jason Castro has for home runs and Willians Astudillo has the other.

The three-headed attack behind the plate will be back in place this weekend, when Astudillo is expected to come off the disabled list and Castro recovers from a sore elbow. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has a daily conundrum on his hands, trying to determine which catcher to start each day. It does help that Astudillo can play other positions, and Garver can play a little first base.

So far, Baldelli has picked the right catcher at the right time. I also believe that the catchers are benefiting from getting a couple days off a week. I remember former players kidding a teammate that he had "fresh hands," whenever he was in the lineup after a couple days off.

I've been thinking about "fresh hands" a lot this season, when I see Garver or Castro get in the lineup and start mashing.

"It's something you have to adjust to, " Garver said of the intermittent playing time, "Because, obviously, playing every day I think you start feeling things in your swing or you get into a little bit of a groove catching and calling games. The important part is just to stay fresh and not let those days off become empty days. Get a little bit of work in, make sure you are taking care of your body, taking care of your swing. If you were thrown into a game would be ready to perform."

This is a juicy game for the Lumber Company. A win gives them a sweep of the Blue Jays, a 4-2 road trip and a 7-3 record during a stretch of games against the Astros, Yankees and Blue Jays heading into a homestand.