Hey, remember last week when the Twins took 2-of-3 from the Tigers to regain control of the AL Central and were the presumed front-runners in the Cliff Lee pursuit? Yeah, about that...
CLIFF LEE UPDATE: SB Nation's Lone Star Ball blog has both the New York Post's Joel Sherman and FOX's Ken Rosenthal reporting that the Rangers have acquired Cliff Lee, with Justin Smoak being the key player sent to Seattle. (Thanks for the heads-up, Matty_B.)
Liriano's last four starts: 0-3, 4.68 ERA. You may recall he shut down the Rays in his last start (1R, 4H, 10K, 7IP) before the bullpen came in, poured gasoline on Target Field, set the field on fire, then poured more gasoline on the fire to make the rarely seen "superfire." Liriano has split his two decisions against the Tigers so far this year.
Quote from Jim Leyland: "On paper, it looks like a heckuva matchup Friday night: Liriano against Verlander...that's pretty good. If I was a fan, I'd be interested in that. It's pretty neat." Sources indicate he smoked two cigarettes and started on a third while providing that quote.
Your starting lineups and a one-hour special devoted to where I'll be doing Twins blogging on Fridays in 2011 after the jump:
Twins (both lineups courtesy Joe C.):
1. Denard Span, CF
2. Orlando Hudson, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Jim Thome, DH
5. Jason Kubel, RF
6. Michael Cuddyer, 1B
7. Delmon Young, LF
8. J.J. Hardy, SS
9. Nick Punto, 3B
Tigers :
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Ryan Raburn, LF
3. Magglio Ordonez, DH
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Brennan Boesch, RF
6. Carlos Guillen, 2B
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Gerald Laird, C
9. Danny Worth, 2B
- No Morneau tonight. Gardy was on 1500ESPN this afternoon and said there was a chance the All-Star first baseman would miss the entire series. Hate to lose him for a series like this, but you don't mess around with concussions.
- No confirmation of a Lee trade as of this writing. Multiple sources are Tweeting that negotiations between the Yanks and Mariners have broken down, and Joel Sherman, the New York Post writer who broke the Yankees/Mariners story last night, says "another team has jumped in hard." (Texas, maybe?) LaVelle writes that "there's a good chance" the Twins would pursue Roy Oswalt if Lee ends up going elsewhere.
Enjoy the game, everybody. If it goes south, keep repeating, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."