Saturday Morning Breakfast & Baseball: Matt Fox, Twins Injuries, Denard Span, Ben Revere and the Pavstache T-Shirt

The last time the Twins saw the Rangers, they beat the Twins 4-3 on consecutive nights.  It was nice to be on the other end of that score last night.

• How did Matthew Fox manage to be so effective in his Major League debut without striking out a single hitter?  Good defense and a little luck.  He didn't miss many bats, he didn't throw a lot of first-pitch strikes and the Rangers got a lot of good wood on a lot of balls...but they found gloves, and the Minnesota defense converted the outs.  Even the hard ones.
• Denard Span was part of that defense last night, jumping into the wall in straightaway center field and making a very nice grab to end the first inning.
• Span also had a good game at the plate by collecting two hits, including the go-ahead single in the seventh inning.  It's worth noting that last week, Span had talked about his struggles this season in terms of always getting behind in the count because pitchers knew he rarely swung at their first offering...his go-ahead single last night came on a first-pitch fastball that caught too much of the plate.
• One more note on Span:  his home splits continue to be impressive, batting .315 with a .391 on-base percentage.
• We found out yesterday that Jason Kubel's X-Ray and MRI showed no break and nothing messy in general, which is good news.  Kubel should be in the lineup by Monday.
• Jim Thome made the start last night, which is good news as well.  Hopefully his back can continue to stay loose.
• Speaking of backs, Brian Fuentes will probably still be unavailable today.  Probably.  It sounds like the Twins are hoping he'll be ready on Sunday.
• Justin Morneau was at Target Field yesterday.  No workouts, no swinging of the bat...just getting out.  Stay tuned.  It's four days until he's eligible to come off the 60-day disabled list, so I imagine the earliest we hear anything new would be Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.
• Orlando Hudson was back in the lineup last night, too.
• J.J. Hardy's wrist didn't seem to bother him last night.  His single that tied the game in the seventh was massive.
• Danny Valencia left Friday's game early, but it was just tightness.  He's okay.  He also made a nice diving stop that started a double play in the fourth inning.  Not bad, Rook.
• Ben Revere isn't on the 40-man roster, but Gardy has been talking to the front office about scenarios in which he could be added.  Since Kubel is due back very soon, this might be dead in the water.  But it's clear that the organization is high on him, even after getting clocked in the eye with a baseball this summer.
• Finally:  if you've ordered a Pavstache T-Shirt, they've been shipped...many of you probably already have them.  One of our Twitter followers, taylen24, posted this pic early this morning.   I'm biased...but it looks good.