Dozier gets day off, Polanco back in lineup for finale of rough road trip

Jorge Polanco is back in the Twins lineup today against the Padres. He has been struggling for the past mionth or so and manager Paul Molitor said Polanco has been working on being more selective at the plate.

Adalberto Mejia will start on Thursday and Bartolo Colon will go on Friday. The Twins still have not announced who will start on Saturday. Molitor said both major and minor league options are being considered.

Righthander Kyle Gibson, currently at Class AAA Rochester, last pitched on Thursday and is not scheduled to start tonight. He's not in line to be an option on Saturday, but that could change if he starts on Thursday and is pulled early. Dillon Gee is also an option. It would be easier just to give him a start.

Brian Dozier is getting a day off and Joe Mauer is batting leadoff.

Twins

Joe Mauer, 1B
Eduardo Escobar, 2B
Max Kepler, RF
Miguel Sano, 3B
Eddie Rosario, LF
Byron Buxton, CF
Jorge Polanco, SS
Jason Castro, C
Ervin Santana, RHP

Padres

I meant to tell this story yesterday, but was short on time.

Trade deadline day was a travel mess for me. I had to change planes in LA, and that flight was delayed an hour. Then, as we approached San Diego, we were informed that one of the planes ahead of us was dealing with an emergency. So we ended up in a holding pattern for another 30 minutes while the emergency was dealt with. That confirmed that I would be rolling off a runway as the trade deadline came and went.

So I was telling this story in the clubhouse before yesterday's game, and Dr. Rick Aberman, the Twins peak performance director, walks over and says, "I was on the plane that had the emergency."

Uh-oh.

Aberman said his flight was going well until they began to see some smoke and smell oil burning. They were told that the smell was coming out of the kitchen area and it wasn't a threat. A few minutes later, the smell returned - and then there was a bang.

Then, as the plane began to descend to the airport, the captain told passengers to ignore the emergency vehicles lined up near the runway, that it was standard procedure.

Whew, I've never had a flight in which emergency vehicles were needed. I had a landing in Toronto aborted just seconds before touchdown a couple years ago, but that's it.

Not surprisingly, Aberman said that, "you could hear a pin drop," as the plane landed in San Diego.

I ended up stuck on a plane as the trade deadline ended on Monday, and that's fine. I'm just glad that the plane ahead of me avoided any serious issues.

I took a picture from the pressbox at Petco yesterday and remarked how nice the park is. A few followers on twitter asked me for my current top five.

1. PNC Park, Pittsburgh. Even with the crappy press box location - just under the roof - it offers the best view in baseball. The three rivers and the Clemente Bridge.

2. AT&T Park, San Francisco. Another fantastic view. McCovey Cove to the right. And I didn't realize there's a giant slide inside the Coke bottle in left until a few years ago.

3. Target Field, Minneapolis. Nice view of downtown to the right. The thing I like the most is the blend of historical reference points inside a contemporary stadium.

4. Camden Yards, Baltimore. First of the retro parks continues to dazzle. Best pressbox location in the game. The warehouse in right is awesome.

5. Petco Park, San Diego. Love the color scheme, the metal supply building in the left field corner and how downtown seems to be growing around it.