The Twins have a 6½ game lead in the American League Central on Cleveland, and the teams start a three-game series tonight at Target Field.
Michael Pineda (11-5, 4.11 ERA) will pitch for the Twins against Cleveland righthander Adam Plutko (6-4, 4.53).
The Twins are coming off an 8-2 road trip, capped by Thursday's 2-1 victory in Boston.
Tomorrow's game is sold out; it's a Joe Mauer bobblehead night. There are a limited number of tickets for tonight's and Sunday's game remaining.
Lineups:
CLEVELAND
Francisco Lindor, SS
Oscar Mercado, CF
Carlos Santana, 1B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Jason Kipnis, 2B
Franmil Reyes, DH
Jake Bauers, LF
Roberto Perez, C
Yu-Cheng Chang, 3B
TWINS
Max Kepler, CF
Jorge Polanco, SS
Nelson Cruz, DH
Eddie Rosario, LF
Miguel Sano, 3B
Luis Arraez, 2B
C.J. Cron, 1B
Jason Castro, C
Jake Cave, RF
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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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