Trevor Plouffe and Joe Mauer aren’t in the Twins’ lineup tonight. Mauer will be back. Plouffe? That’s another matter.
The Twins’ third baseman, his season already marred by a series of injuries, will miss at least two weeks and probably the rest of the season after suffering a strain to both his left oblique and left intercostal muscles while batting on Tuesday. The Twins have only 23 games remaining, and Plouffe will miss at least two weeks — but these injuries normally take 4-6 weeks to recover from.
“I don’t think there’s a very strong likelihood he’s going to play,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. But he’s not willing to rule it out, either.
As for Mauer, his legs have been sore since he suffered a strained quad muscle three weeks ago in Atlanta. He’s been trying to play with the injury, but he’s clearly been slowed by it, and Molitor has decided to give him the next couple of days to rest up and see if he can bounce back.
“Joe understands, like a lot of guys — when you can’t play, you can’t play,” Molitor said. “But if you can battle through things, at least let the manager know you’re available, you do that. He told me he wants to play when he can.”
The Twins, losers of 17 of their last 19 games, will try to salvage the finale of this three-game series with Kansas City, with Kyle Gibson on the mound. Gibson has had success against the Royals in the past; he’s got a 3.10 ERA in nine previous starts. But he’s 1-7 at home this year, and would like to change that.
Here are the lineups for tonight’s game:
ROYALS
Dyson CF
Orlando RF
Hosmer 1B
Morales DH
Gordon LF
Cuthbert 3B
A. Escobar SS
Merrifield 2B
Butera C
Duffey LHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Polanco SS
Sano DH
Vargas 1B
Grossman LF
E. Escobar 3B
Schafer RF
Murphy C
Buxton CF
Gibson RHP
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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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