Rigthander Phil Hughes has been scratched from tonight's start because of illness and has been replaced by lefthander Tommy Milone.
Hughes is being affected by the same bug that has hit Trevor Plouffe, Brian Duensing, Kevin Jepsen and others in the clubhouse. Hughes said this morning was the worst he's felt, with congestion and aches. Hughes has been under the weather for a couple days, which the Twins were aware of, but wanted to wait until today before having a decision made.
``I told (trainer Dave Pruemer) that I didn't sleep well and had sweats during the night," Hughes said. ``They have scheduled an i.v. When I got here, Mollie said we're going to go with Tommy."
Indians manager Terry Francona was on the treadmill when Molitor called him around 3 p.m. local time to tell him of the change. His revised lineup does not include Jose Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall, who were in the original lineup.
``If you think about who is going to need 100 percent of their energy out there on the field on any given day, your starting pitcher is going to exert as much as anybody," Molitor said. ``So it is probably not far to Phil or our team to try to push that issue. Not sure what we would get."
Milone, Molitor said, has the best chance of getting deep into the game among the options he has. Milone, if he's effective, should be able to throw 75-90 pitches, Molitor said.
We now return to regular programming:
Greetings from Progressive Field (The Prog) where the Twins will face Cleveland today in the first of four games. Both teams are trying to catch Houston for the final wild card spot, but the Indians are four games back with three teams to pass to get there. Still, they enter this game with all hands on deck.
