It's a gorgeous night for a game at Target Field. A football game, I mean.
Actually, now that the rain has passed, the 55 degree weather is a nice change from the normal August heat — as long as it's only temporary. (We're back to the high 70s tomorrow, I'm told.) It's almost too bad the Twins couldn't market a night like this ahead of time: Sweather Weather Night, or Fall Preview Night, something like that.
The Twins haven't generated much heat on the field lately, especially in the late innings. Minnesota hasn't scored after the sixth inning in the last 10 days, and as a result, have all but dropped out of the playoff race. They trail Cleveland by six games in the AL Central, and while they're only 3 1/2 games out of the second wild-card spot, there are four teams ahead of them. A long spell of winning would change the outlook, but the Twins haven't put together a streak longer than four games all year, and the last one of those was in May.
They're back home for six games starting tonight, with Adalberto Mejia on the mound, and Paul Molitor was trying to stay optimistic.
"The guys that have been doing the job for us have put us in this position. They had a couple of hiccups," Molitor said of the Twins' 2-6 road trip to the West Coast. "Timing is a big part of this game, and hopefully yesterday Ervin [Santana] picked us up and we can find a way to come out and back it up today."
Molitor announced that Kyle Gibson will return from Class AAA Rochester to start Saturday's game against the Rangers. Gibson steps into Jaime Garcia's spot in the rotation, which seems only fair, since Garcia took Gibson's spot for his lone Twins start.
Here are the lineups for tonight's opener of a four-game series with the Texas Rangers, who probably didn't expect to need their jackets and sweatshirts in early August:
RANGERS
DeShields LF
Andrus SS
Mazara RF
Beltre 3B
Napoli DH
Odor 2B
Gomez CF
Gallo 1B
Chirinos C
Griffin RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Kepler RF
Sano 3B
Mauer 1B
Escobar SS
Rosario LF
Grossman DH
Castro C
Buxton CF
Mejia LHP
