ARLINGTON, Texas — Kennys Vargas has batted fifth, seventh and sixth the past three games. Torii Hunter has been second, fourth and fifth in the past week. Joe Mauer batted second on Wednesday, but he's back to third today.
"I'm open to at least tweaking [the lineup] fairly regularly," manager Paul Molitor said, and he's proven it during the past week as he has looked for a way to break his team out of its June batting slump.
With lefthander Wandy Rodriguez on the mound tonight, "I had a couple questions I was researching," Molitor said of his lineup deliberations. "One was how it would look with Joe second and Torii third against the lefty. Lefties do better than righties against [Rodriguez]."
And he remains unsure about whether Vargas is going to be a power producer. He batted Eddie Rosario ahead of Vargas earlier in the week; they've flip-flopped again today.
"I've tried five, six, seven to see where he fits in best," Molitor said. "He should be a five guy, somewhere in that vicinity. I think about late-inning matchups, potentially, all those things."
So don't expect him to settle into an everyday nine, not as long as the offense isn't producing. The Twins have scored three runs or fewer in eight of their 10 games this month, including the last five in a row. They are in danger tonight of suffering a four-game losing streak for the first time this season.
Here are tonight's lineups at Globe Life Park:
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Hunter CF
Mauer 1B
Plouffe 3B
Vargas DH
Rosario LF
Suzuki C
Escobar SS
Hicks CF
Milone LHP
RANGERS
DeShields LF
Choo RF
Fielder DH
Moreland 1B
Andrus SS
Gallo 3B
Corporan C
Martin CF
Alberto 2B
Rodriguez LHP