James Beresford’s day has come. Signed by the Twins almost a decade ago, Beresford has accumulated a whopping 4,383 minor-league plate appearances, but today will be his first in a major-league games. The rookie infielder is listed eighth in the Twins’ lineup tonight against Cleveland, playing third base.
“I told him when he came up that I was going to try to get him a chance to play up here,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “I didn’t say a lot, but we’ll try to find a time or two, if not more, where he might get an opportunity to get some at-bats and play on the field.”
Molitor said he looked for “a good fit” for the Melbourne, Australia native, and the Indians’ starter tonight, Mike Clevinger, helped him make up his mind. “I know he’s faced Clevinger this year, for example, down there in Triple-A,” Molitor said. Beresford went 1-for-3 against Clevinger in a June 14 game between his Class AAA Rochester team and Columbus.
No matter how well he does tonight, Beresford will make Twins history, of a sort. He’s the 49th player to appear in a game for the Twins this season, breaking the franchise record of 48 set in 2014.
One other lineup note: Max Kepler will get his first career start as a cleanup hitter. Kepler is batting .316 (6 for 19) over the past week.
Here are the lineups for tonight’s game:
INDIANS
Davis CF
Kipnis 2B
Lindor SS
Napoli DH
Santana 1B
Ramirez 3B
Guyer RF
Crisp LF
Perez C
Clevinger RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Polanco SS
Kepler RF
Sano DH
Rosario LF
Suzuki C
Beresford 2B
Buxton CF
Santiago LHP
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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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