Oswaldo Arcia's back pain is gone. Something about facing Trevor Bauer seems to make Arcia healthy.
The Twins' right fielder, who sat out two games after wrenching his back with an awkward swing on Monday, is back in the lineup tonight to face Bauer, perhaps Arcia's favorite pitcher. Arcia is 4-for-8 against the Cleveland righthander this season, with a single and three of his 18 home runs. Considering his last healthy at-bat on Monday also resulted in an upper-deck blast, it will be interesting to see if Arcia can keep from swinging for the fence again.
The game is critical to the Indians, who enter the day four games out of the final wild-card spot. Detroit and Kansas City open a three-game series in KC tonight, so they need one of those teams to sweep the other, then get some help against Oakland and Seattle. The Indians have a game in hand, sort of; they own a two-run lead over the Royals in the 10th inning of a game that will be completed in Cleveland on Monday. But losing ground in Minnesota would just about eliminate them.
Phil Hughes is on the mound for Minnesota, trying to become the Twins' first 16-game winner since Carl Pavano went 17-11 in 2010. Hughes allowed one run over seven innings in his only start against Cleveland this season.
Eduardo Escobar says his sore right shoulder is much better today, but the Twins aren't confident yet that he can safely dive on it, so he'll sit out another day or two. Escobar played catch today and reported no problems.
Anthony Swarzak has been told he's starting Sunday's finale of this series, his second straight start in place of Tommy Milone, who is still recovering from a sore neck. Speaking of sore necks, Glen Perkins saw a doctor this afternoon, but there are no reports yet about his condition.
Here are tonight's lineups:
INDIANS
