Twins still striving to grab best record

The Twins still have a chance to finish with the best record in baseball, beat out the Yankees and Rays and get home-field advantage throughout the American League playoffs. (The National League gets home-field advantage in the World Series because it won the All-Star Game.)

Still, Ron Gardenhire started five players Wednesday against Cleveland who have come up from Class AAA Rochester and not played on a regular basis this season.

Missing from the regular lineup that beat Cleveland 5-1 were first baseman Michael Cuddyer, second baseman Orlando Hudson, shortstop J.J. Hardy, outfielder Delmon Young, designated hitter Jim Thome and catcher Joe Mauer, who is injured.

The lineup included shortstop Alexi Casilla, Jose Morales -- playing first base for the first time in a major-league game -- second baseman Matt Tolbert, left fielder Ben Revere and right fielder Jason Repko, all who have received limited playing time this season.

But Gardenhire said he still is playing every game to win and wants to get the home-field advantage.

"We're not losing sight of that. That's what we're after here," Gardenhire said.

"We're going to play everybody, and we're going to mix it in and give guys some rest who need it. But we're going to play them all. We're going to win ballgames. We want to win. We want to keep winning. There's no reason not to."

Gardenhire said he has confidence in all of the players who were in Wednesday's lineup.

"Absolutely, I have faith in every one of these guys," he said. "You're going to see our starters and our bench guys, our role guys, mixed in, just to make sure we take care of everyone," Gardenhire said. "But we're going to win ballgames. That's why we come to the ballpark; we come to win.

"These guys are excited. They were excited to get out there today and have a chance to get out there and get some swings in. We had some speed in the lineup, they were able to run around a little bit, we got a bunch of good two-out base hits, and we made some nice defensive plays.

"Absolutely, you've got to keep winning, you want to keep winning. Any time you step on the baseball field it's about winning, that's what it's all about."

The Twins are 52-25 at Target Field. And the history of this team in the postseason, when it won the World Series in 1987 and 1991, was that it won at home and lost on the road.

But Gardenhire has done most everything right this year. So maybe his lineup plan will work out.

Wilfs not concerned True, the Wilf family -- the owners of the Vikings -- would rather be 2-0 than 0-2 after losses to the Saints and Dolphins in the first two games of the NFL season, but they are not ready to panic.

They make it no secret that they thought the team would start 2-0, with a veteran squad returning from a 12-4 season that ended one game away from making the Super Bowl.

"The thing that the NFL wants is parity, and that's what they have got," Vikings owner/president Mark Wilf said. "On any given day, the favorite can lose."

All you have to do is look at the standings and see the Cowboys also are 0-2. And they aren't the only surprise. You can see some pretty good 0-2 teams and some pretty ordinary 2-0 teams. Parity is here.

While there have been rumors of the Vikings' interest in outstanding receiver Vincent Jackson, Mark Wilf wouldn't talk about anybody else's players. No team was able to make a deal for Jackson by Wednesday's 3 p.m. deadline, so he will remain property of the Chargers.

However Wilf did say former Yankees owner George Steinbrenner's policy was to win and that the Wilf's operation is the same.

"We will do what it takes to win," Mark Wilf said.

Jottings The Twins will hold a lottery next week to allow non-season-ticket-holders to buy tickets for the playoffs. Tickets will be available because Major League Baseball doesn't take as many tickets in the Division Series round as it does for later rounds, and some of the partial season-ticket-holders have not renewed their tickets for the playoffs.

Thome could double his $1.5 million salary with the incentives he has in his contract for the number of plate appearances. Thome has 25 home runs in 271 at-bats, probably double what was expected. Thome graces the cover of Sports Illustrated this week with a story titled "Jim Thome Has The Power To Bring October Magic to Minnesota."

Former WCCO-TV sportscaster Hal Scott died Tuesday at age 87. Scott was sports director at WCCO-TV for more than 20 years. He had his career cut short when he hit his throat in a fall and damaged his vocal cords in 1980.

What a dream come true for Twins third baseman Danny Valencia, who was called up June 3 from Rochester, where he was hitting .298 with no homers and 24 RBI in 48 games. Now he is batting .439 at Target Field (.332 overall) and batted cleanup Wednesday, going 0-for-4 in the victory over the Indians.

Gardenhire won his 800th major league game Tuesday night in his 1,448th game as manager. He is the second Twins manager to reach 800 victories after Tom Kelly, who achieved it in his 1,614th game on May 12, 1997, by beating Toronto. ... Morales, normally a catcher, said Kelly, who is still a special assistant to the general manager with the Twins, worked him out at first base while he was in the minor leagues. Kelly was told the Twins wanted Morales to be available at first base if needed.

Until Wednesday's 4-3 victory over Oakland, the Chicago White Sox had lost eight consecutive games (including a three-game sweep by the Twins on Sept. 14-16). They are 31-34 since the All-Star break, compared to the Twins' 46-18 record -- the best in baseball since the break.

Brian Fuentes, the Twins lefthanded reliever who was secured on waivers from the Angels, has thrown 82 pitches in six appearances for the Twins. Considering the $1.9 million balance on his salary when the deal was made, Fuentes has been paid $23,170 per pitch.

Twins pitcher Brian Duensing made his 10th home start Monday and beat the Indians 9-3 to improve his home record to 7-0. He has a 1.03 ERA in those games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the only other pitcher to go undefeated with at least seven victories and an ERA of 1.03 or lower in his first 10 starts at home is the New York Giants' Ferdie Schupp, who was 8-0 with a .073 ERA in his first 10 starts from 1913 to 1917.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com