Ron Gardenhire opened his pregame press conference Sunday with a complaint -- why are the Wild playing a day game? Yes, Minnesota's baseball manager has a little playoff fever for its hockey team, but hasn't been able to watch much of the postseason.
"I'm going to call and ask them to change things around," he joked.
One thing he doesn't want to change: The Twins' two-game streak of solid starting pitching, which has eased the burden on the bullpen and made the games more competitive.
"We're in a stretch where we're playing quite a few games in a row, so we need our starters to go" deep into games, he said.
Phil Hughes has that responsibility today, and he's been up to it lately; he's allowed four earned runs in his last two starts, posting a 2.77 ERA.
"Hopefully he keeps building on that," Gardenhire said. "It'd be nice to see our starters get on a roll. It sure makes the game a lot easier."
Here are the lineups for today's series finale:
ORIOLES
Markakis RF
Machado 3B
Cruz LF
Jones CF
Weiters C
Hardy SS
Young DH
Pearce 1B
Schoop 2B
Gonzalez RHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Plouffe DH
Colabello RF
Kubel LF
Suzuki C
Fuld CF
Escobar 3B
Florimon SS
Hughes RHP