SAN DIEGO -- They've only barely arrived, and the Twins are already packing up to leave.
This two-game series ends in a few hours, and the visitors from Minnesota plan to hustle to the buses and speed to the airport in record time once it does. It seems the San Diego airport, located just off downtown and just downhill from a residential area, has an 11 p.m. curfew for takeoffs. If the Twins get there late, say because of a slow game or extra innings, their buses will take them to an arranged rendezvous point with their chartered plane -- in Ontario, Calif., more than two hours north of here.
The Twins, understandably, want to avoid the long drive before their flight to San Francisco, where they'll spend the night and an off day before playing a three-game weekend series with the Giants. They had hoped for a home game to end this series, but the Padres were reluctant, agreeing instead to start tonight's game an hour earlier than usual, 8 p.m. Central rather than 9 p.m. So the Twins' bags are already packed up in the clubhouse, and players have been asked to cut short their normal postgame routines tonight.
When they do play, here are the lineups they'll use, as the Twins attempt to improve to 5-0 in Petco Park:
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Plouffe 3B
