Joe Mauer has been battling cold and flu-like symptoms since the team was in Oakland last week and Twins manager Ron Gardenhire finally felt it was time to give the catcher a rest. The skipper said that Mauer’s bat looked a bit slow on Wednesday night. So the club’s .425 hitter is out of the lineup for Thursday’s series finale against the Pirates.

Instead of Mauer in the DH spot for the day game, Brian Buscher gets the nod. Jason Kubel is in left field with Delmon Young getting a break today as well. Left-handers are batting .346 off Pirates starter Zach Duke while righties are hitting just .237.

Day games haven’t exactly been kind to the Twins so far this year. They are just 7-16 in day games this season while batting .246 in those contests. So they’ll see if they can end this series on a positive note, picking up not only a day win but also a series win.

Here are today’s lineups:

Pirates
Andrew McCutchen, CF
Nyjer Morgan, LF
Eric Hinske, DH
Adam LaRoche, 1B
Andy LaRoche, 3B
Brandon Moss, RF
Jason Jaramillo, C
Ramon Vazquez, 2B
Jack Wilson, SS
Pitching: Zach Duke, LHP

Twins
Carlos Gomez, CF
Brendan Harris, SS
Justin Morneau, 1B
Michael Cuddyer, RF
Jason Kubel, LF
Joe Crede, 3B
Brian Buscher, DH
Mike Redmond, C
Nick Punto, 2B
Pitching: Nick Blackburn, RHP