Twins manager Ron Gardenhire is starting Joe Mauer behind the plate tonight with Carl Pavano on the mound - and not Pavano's personal catcher, Drew Butera. Butera caught Pavano 12 straight starts until tonight.
Gardenhire cited two reasons: One, he wanted to keep Jim Thome's bat in the lineup with Jason Kubel out with a sore left wrist (keep foot on Chicago's throats).
Two, Mauer is going to catch Pavano in the postseason, so they need to work together. Butera will probably get a couple more outings with Pavano, but look for Mauer to catch him too.
Kubel, by the way, will test his wrist tomorrow and might be able to play against Oakland.
Checked with several players before the game and they were ALL for doing everything possible to reach base, including pretending to be hit with a pitch when they really weren't.
Cool stat of the day: Michael Cuddyer, with 96 plate appearances, is closing in on 100 appearances against Mark Buehrle. Cuddyer has faced Buehrle more than any other pitcher (Nate Robertson is second) and Buehrle has faced Cuddyer more than any other batter (Torii Hunter is second).
TWINS (87-58)
1. Denard Span, CF
2. Orlando Hudson, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Jim Thome, DH
7. Danny Valencia, 3B
8. Jason Repko, RF
9. J.J. Hardy, SS
Pitching: Carl Pavano, RHP
WHITE SOX (79-66)
1, Juan Pierre, LF
2. Omar Vizquel, 2B
3. Alex Rios, CF
4. Paul Konerko, 1B
5. Manny Ramirez, DH
6. Carlos Quentin, RF
7. A.J. Pierzynski, C
8. Alexei Ramirez, SS
9. Brett Morel, 3B
Pitching: Mark Buehrle, 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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