It's cool to get to the park early to see who is doing extra work.

Yesterday, Trevor Plouffe was taking extra grounders at short. As a super utility/part-time starter, he has to be ready in case he's needed.

Today, Plouffe and Justin Morneau are hitting off a tee at home plate. It's a drill Morneau was given early in his pro career with the Twins. You sit a ball on a tee and focus on hitting the bottom half. That's where you get the backspin that helps the ball carry farther. You can do it in the batting cage, but Morneau likes to do it on the field sometimes so he can see where the ball is traveling.

It's good to see Plouffe with him too. That's two straight days Plouffe has been doing early work - at least early work I can see.

Morneau is wearing a different shoe on each foot. I didn't learn until after last night's game how badly he fouled the ball off his foot on Thursday. Don't know if he's in the lineup or not.

Pavano is in the lineup, however. The Twins have had a starter throw at least 6.2 innings four times this season. Pavano has three of those starts. The Twins need at least a quality start tonight so the bullpen doesn't get used up too much. For instance, Jared Burton has had shoulder problems in recent years. He threw yesterday in the Twins' 5-4 win, and the coaching staff really doesn't want to use him in back-to-back games in the early season.

Will post the lineup here when it reaches the pressbox. It's a great day for indoor baseball, because it's coming down outside.

UPDATES:

Morneau's right foot is still sore, but he's able to play today. He'll wear a protective guard on the foot.

Glen Perkins is available after getting the day off yesterday.

The Twins want to give Burton today off, as expected. They want to limit his back-to-back days as well as multi-inning appearances.

Jamey Carroll, by the way, saw 28 pitches in five at-bats on Friday.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka, at Class AAA Rochester, has a high right ankle sprain and will have X-Rays on Monday.

Alex Wimmers, at Class AA New Britain, missed his last start because of a tender elbow. But now he's going to be examined on Monday.

Brian Dozier started at second yesterday for the Red Wings. It will be interesting to see how often he plays there over the next couple weeks, given Casilla's struggles.

Casilla, by the way, has 0 RBI.

Twins (5-9)

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Jamey Carroll, SS
3. Joe Mauer, 1B
4. Josh Willingham, LF
5. Justin Morneau, DH
6. Ryan Doumit, C
7. Danny Valencia, 3B
8. Clete Thomas, RF
9. Alexi Casilla, 2B

Carl Pavano, RHP

Rays (7-7)

1. Desmond Jennings, LF
2. Ben Zobrist, 2B
3. Carlos Pena, 1B
4. Evan Longoria, 3B
5. Luke Scott, DH
6. Matt Joyce, RF
7. B. J. Upton, CF
8. Jose Molina, C
9. Sean Rodriguez, SS

James Shields, RHP