Joe Mauer is not in the lineup tonight against the Blue Jays. Manager Ron Gardenhire had planned to try to give Mauer, who went 3-for-5 in Monday’s win, a complete day off at some point on this roadtrip and he felt this was the best time. Gardenhire also said that he plans to give Mauer a DH day on Wednesday to give him a couple days of rest with so many long stretches of games coming up for the club.

Mauer is available to pinch hit tonight if needed. And with off days in
each of the next two weeks, Gardenhire said he hopes that this is the last game
Mauer won’t start this season.

Early in the day, there was a little lineup mixup. Originally we were told that Michael Cuddyer was the DH and Jason Kubel was playing right field. But Gardenhire was flip-flopping players to take Mauer’s spot in the lineup and forgot to switch the position numbers as well. So Cuddyer is actually in right field and Kubel is the DH, while also filling in for Mauer in the No. 3 hole.

The Twins activated Crede from the DL on Tuesday. Everything went well for Crede in the simulated game against Francisco Liriano — he saw about 10-15 pitches from the lefty– and the third baseman will be available off the bench tonight for the Twins.

Liriano also did well in the game as he threw 42 pitches. Gardenhire said the pitcher’s fastball was jumping. The plan is to activate Liriano on Wednesday and he will likely be available out of the bullpen for Thursday’s contest against the Blue Jays.

And for those of you interested, first base coach Jerry White did get a hit off Liriano in the simulated game. In the last at-bat of the contest, White blooped a single into the left field gap and all of the players gathered behind the batting cage greeted him with many high-fives.

“I think [Liriano] tried to sneak a fastball by him,” Gardenhire said with a laugh. 

Also a note, Gardenhire and his wife, Carol, who is on the trip to Toronto, are celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary today. So here is a congratulations to both of them and a happy anniversary!

Here are today’s lineups:

Twins (69-68)
2nd place in AL Central, 6.5 games back
Denard Span, CF
Orlando Cabrera, SS
Jason Kubel, DH
Justin Morneau, 1B
Michael Cuddyer, RF
Brendan Harris, 3B
Delmon Young, LF
Mike Redmond, C
Nick Punto, 2B
Pitching: LHP Brian Duensing (2-1, 3.81)

Blue Jays (61-76)
4th place in AL East, 27 games back

Marco Scutaro, SS
Jose Bautista, RF
Adam Lind, LF
Vernon Wells, CF
Randy Ruiz, DH
Kevin Millar, 1B
Edwin Encarnacion, 3B
Raul Chavez, C
John McDonald, 2B

Pitching: LHP Rickey Romero (11-7, 4.15)

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