Game 14: Twins @ Rays

Time: 6:10 Central. Vegas Line: TAM -125/+115 MIN

Weather: I Actually Checked This, But They Have A Roof

Opponent’s SB Site: D Rays Bay

TV: FSN. Radio: How V’Ger Tells Us It’s Lonely In “Star Trek”

Hey, you remember Go-Go! The Twins got him for Johan Santana, then traded him for J.J. Hardy. And, of course, Wilson Ramos! The Twins traded him for “proven closer” Matt Capps. But, most of all, you should remember Denard Span. He had the best facial-hair grooming of any Twin, ever, the most inappropriate walkup song, ever (it was a different time, then, we shall say), and the most bizarre Spring Training Incident. He almost killed his mom, in the stands, with an errant foul ball. It’s immortalized here.

Happily, his mom was fine. She works with Denard, now, at a charity dedicated to helping single parents. They’re both hometown Tampans (-ites? -ians?) and thrilled he gets to play near where he grew up.

Superman stock character Lance Lynn starts for the Twins, and functioning alcoholic super-spy Chris Archer for the Rays. Neither is up to last year’s speed yet, possibly because one or both isn’t quite at midseason strength. Archer is currently hittable when batters work the count; at some point, ideally not tonight, he won’t be hittable. When Archer’s on, he throws a hard-moving fastball and Slider Of Pure Death.

For anyone interested in such details, this doesn’t have the “GameThread” widget on top because I can’t edit GameThreads now, probably through some fault of my own. Heck, the widget didn’t work anyhoo. BUT THAT MEANS I CAN’T INSERT MY FUN TABLE OF NUMBERS DAMMIT AND THE LINEUP WIDGET LOOKS LIKE A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WITH BRAIN RABIES DID THE FORMATTING