Friday, August 17, 2007

Injuries? What Injuries?

No sign of Jason Bartlett or Jason Kubel in the lineup tonight, but both are feeling pretty good today, and both figure to avoid the disabled list. Kubel has shaved his beard, and was a little hard to recognize. Until he got in the cage, anyway -- he was launching line drives all over the field, as usual.

The Twins have painted 20th anniversary logos on the field, and are really going all out for the 1987 team. I asked Mike Redmond, who was still in high school in 1987, who he pulled for in the ’87 World Series -- he said the Twins, of course. Why? “They’re closer to Spokane.” Makes perfect sense.

By the way, about three weeks ago, the Twins had an off night in Cleveland. I spent it at Jacobs Field, watching Kason Gabbard, tonight’s starter for Texas, get hammered by the Indians. The Red Sox (who traded him in the Gagne deal a week later) handed him an 8-1 lead or something like that, but he couldn’t get out of the fifth inning to earn the win.

Tonight’s lineups:

RANGERS
Catalanotto lf
Kinsler 2b
Young ss
Byrd cf
Botts dh
Cruz rf
Wilkerson 1b
Saltalamacchia c
Vazquez 3b

Gabbard p

TWINS
Casilla 2b
Punto ss
Mauer c
Hunter cf
Morneau 1b
Cuddyer rf
White lf
Redmond dh
Watkins 3b
Silva p