By: Kelly Thesier/MLB.com

MINNEAPOLIS –With Joe Mauer not starting as he gets a day off to rest, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire did a little tweaking with the top of his batting order.

Rather than moving Justin Morneau up to the 3rd spot as he’s done when Mauer is not playing, Gardenhire shifted Delmon Young up from the eighth spot last night into the No. 3 hole for today’s game.

“We have the soul patrol leading off,” Gardenhire said. “We have [Denard] Span, [Orlando] Hudson, and Delmon. And that was
self-proclaimed by Delmon that the soul patrol will be the top three in the lineup today.”

Young’s reference of course was to the Twins’ original “Soul Patrol” which was the outfield consisting of Jacque Jones, Torii Hunter and Matt Lawton. And Young said that he was part of another soul patrol outfield during his time in Tampa Bay with B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford.

Even without Mauer, the Twins lineup appears pretty deep today. Michael Cuddyer is back at third base and Jim Thome gets his third straight start at DH as he sits one HR behind Harmon Killebrew (573) for 10th place on the all-time home run list.

Tigers (41-35)
Austin
Jackson, CF
Johnny Damon, LF
Magglio Ordonez, DH
Miguel
Cabrera, 1B
Brennan
Boesch, RF
Carlos Guillen, 2B
Brandon Inge, 3B
Gerald Laird, C
Danny Worth, SS
Pitching: LHP Andy Oliver (0-1, 3.00 ERA)

Twins

(42-35)
Denard Span, CF
Orlando Hudson, 2B
Delmon Young, LF
Justin Morneau, 1B
Jason Kubel, RF
Michael Cuddyer, 3B
Jim Thome, DH
Nick
Punto, SS
Drew Butera, C
Pitching: RHP Kevin Slowey (7-5, 4.79 ERA)

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