A Schelling For Your Thoughts

When he said he felt great Wednesday, manager Ron Gardenhire penciled him in to lead off and play center field for the Twins. Span was not in the lineup Thursday, but is expected to play this weekend in Cleveland.

“We’ve left it up to him to come in and tell us when he thinks he can play,” said head trainer Rick McWane. “He came in this morning and said that he would like to get ready to go tomorrow.”

Span went 0-for-3 on Wednesday, and caught the only ball hit to him during four innings in center field. He is only expected to play in a few games the rest of the way, and may not get a full nine innings in any of them.

Right-hander Scott Baker, who pitched an inning out of the bullpen Wednesday for his first appearance in more than a month, felt good Thursday morning, McWane said.

Kubel intends to make weekend road trip

MINNEAPOLIS — While he has not been shut down completely, Jason Kubel is unlikely to pinch hit over the final week unless absolutely necessary. But Kubel did tell Twins manager Ron Gardenhire that he wanted to make the road trip with the club this weekend.

In order to do so, Kubel will need to take swings in the cage to get himself ready to pinch-hit. According to Gardenhire, that’s something Kubel has not done since being limited to a pinch-hit role for the remainder of the season.

“I talked with him this morning, I said, ‘Is there any reason you should go on this road trip?'” Gardenhire said. “And he says he wants to be with the guys. I said, ‘Well, then you have to tell me that if there’s an emergency situation, I can put you in there. He said, ‘I’ll do whatever you need me to do.'”

Kubel has been dealing with pain in his left foot, which has been lingering since he sprained it nearly four months ago. The injury put Kubel on the disabled list for six weeks, but he will not fully recover until he has time to rest it completely in the offseason.

Twins outfielder Jason Repko, who is dealing with concussion symptoms stemming from being hit in the helmet with a pitch on Sunday, will not make the trip to Cleveland. He has not been entirely ruled out, but is unlikely to play again this season.

MINNEAPOLIS — With the heart of their order due up and the bases loaded in the ninth, all the Twins needed was a ball into the outfield to tie the game and a base hit for the potential winning run. Instead, they got a strikeout and a pair of groundouts to end the game.

With that, the Twins sustained a 5-4 loss to the Mariners in the series opener at Target Field. It was Minnesota’s 10th straight loss, its first such streak since Sept. 9-19, 1998.

Minnesota has lost nine or more in a row twice this season, while also posting six different losing streaks of six or more games.

“It’s tough. I’ll take that one tonight because I didn’t come through,” said Twins right fielder Michael Cuddyer. “I get up in that situation, and like I said, you can’t strike out.”

After singles by Rene Tosoni and Ben Revere, a throwing error by closer Brandon League on Trevor Plouffe’s sacrifice bunt loaded the bases. Cuddyer took the first shot at League, striking out on four pitches.

Cuddyer drove a foul ball down the right-field line that may have scored Tosoni, but it dropped in front of Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki and Cuddyer swung through the next pitch for strike three.

“Yeah, he definitely let it drop. No question,” Cuddyer said. “It’s gutsy. It hit the wall or short-hopped the wall, I can’t remember exactly, but he made a better play on the one in the first inning. But it’s his call, and he obviously made the right one.”

Following Cuddyer were Chris Parmelee and Danny Valencia, both of whom grounded out, with the Mariners getting the force at home on Parmelee’s at-bat.

Starter Liam Hendriks will have to wait at least one more start to try to secure his first Major League win. But considering how Tuesday night started, things could have gone a lot worse for Hendriks and the Twins.

Hendriks opened his third career start by surrendering extra-base hits to three of the first four hitters he faced, with the only out being a warning-track fly ball. He managed to give up just two runs in the frame, but was hit hard throughout the game.

Ichiro started the game with a triple and scored on Kyle Seager’s double one batter later. Seager then scored on Mike Carp’s double to give the Mariners an early lead.

“I was falling forward and overthrowing my pitches and dropping my head a lot,” Hendriks said. “They jumped all over us. Within three pitches I think I was down a run. But a credit to their team, they came out swinging and it scored them a couple runs early.”

Hendriks held the Mariners scoreless over the next four innings, but his night ended after a double and two-run, game-tying homer by Alex Liddi with one out in the sixth. Over 5 1/3 innings, Hendriks gave up four runs on 10 hits with five strikeouts.

“Liam made the one bad pitch there at the end. That was probably the last hitter he was going to face,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “He hung a slider and tied the ballgame up.”

Minnesota quickly answered in the bottom of the first, tying the game with a pair of runs. Revere singled and stole second, while Plouffe and Parmelee each doubled. The Twins added runs in the fourth and fifth to take a short-lived 4-3 lead.

Despite not having his best stuff, Mariners starter Jason Vargas got the win as he went six innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on nine hits. Vargas also had two walks and four strikeouts.

“I didn’t really have one,” Vargas said of his scouting report on the young Twins lineup. “That can be good or bad. More than likely, you get a bunch of young guys playing, they’re going to swing the bats. So, I thought maybe that played a little part into it, but it was just a struggle tonight.”

Left-hander Brian Duensing relieved Hendriks, and an ugly play on a soft grounder between the mound and first plated the go-ahead run for the Mariners. Duensing was unable to cleanly field the ball, allowing Adam Kennedy to reach first and Seager to score from third. A poor flip by Duensing was not in time, and got away from Parmelee at first base.

With their 94th loss of the season, the Twins have to win four of their last nine games to avoid losing 100 games for just the second time since the club moved to Minnesota, and the first time since posting a 60-102 record in 1982.

“You definitely don’t want 100 losses,” Cuddyer said. “Anybody who has pride doesn’t want 100 losses. You don’t want 99 losses either. So, you have to go out and play, and play hard and play to win. We put ourselves in position tonight, but we didn’t come through.”

Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

MINNEAPOLIS — Twins right fielder Jason Repko left Sunday’s game in the sixth inning after being struck in the head with a pitch by Indians right-hander Justin Masterson.

About an hour after the game, Repko returned to the Twins’ clubhouse after his CT scan came out clear. He said he had a headache, but it cleared up after he was given some ibuprofen at the hospital.

After going 0-for-2 to start the game, Repko was hit with the first pitch he saw in his third at-bat, an 88-mph sinker from Masterson. Repko quickly dropped to the ground after being hit and remained there as the Twins’ training staff came out to check on him.

Matt Tolbert pinch-ran for Repko and remained in the game at second base. Brian Dinkelman replaced Repko in right field.

Repko was sent to Hennepin County Medical Center for further evaluation after being helped off the field.

With Repko unavailable for the New York trip, the Twins will have 12 players staying back in Minnesota, leaving them with one starting pitcher, 11 relievers and 13 position players. Of those position players, Rene Tosoni may be unavailable with the flu and Jason Kubel will only be used in a pinch-hitting role due to left foot pain.

Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

MINNEAPOLIS — Jim Thome didn’t know if he would ever get the chance to return to Cleveland. And while the last three weeks have not exactly gone according to plan for the Indians, it’s been a special experience for Thome.

It was another homecoming of sorts for Thome on Friday, as the slugger returned to Target Field for the first time since rejoining the Indians through a late-August waiver-wire trade from the Twins, who will receive a player to be named on or before Oct. 15.

Thome returned to a standing ovation from Twins fans when he was announced before his first at-bat, and ended up going 2-for-4 on the night, including a solo homer off Joe Nathan in the ninth inning that proved to be the difference in the Indians’ 7-6 win.

“Any time you can pick up an extra run, or if you can get two runs in the ninth, you never know,” Thome said. “Sometimes that can be big. It ended up being big. They battled back — credit them. But we played a pretty good ballgame tonight. It’s big to get that win.”

Even Twins manager Ron Gardenhire couldn’t help but be in awe of Thome, even though his homer gave the Indians a much-needed insurance run, as the Twins rallied for two runs in the ninth but fell just short to lose their sixth straight game.

“No matter what team you’re on, whenever he walks up to the plate, you’re always interested in watching him,” Gardenhire said. “He got us tonight, but we’ve seen him get lots of people, and he’s gotten us plenty of times before. It’s nice to see him back in town, but I’d still like to end up with a win and shake hands.”

As he sat in the visitor’s clubhouse before the series opener, Thome had plenty of good things to say about his time in Minnesota.

“I don’t look at the amount of home runs, I don’t look at the production. I look at the time.” Thome said. “The production is great. It’s great. But there’s more to it than just getting an opportunity to come over. It was meeting new people.

“All in all, you go to grind with guys for two years. You go to war with those guys. You appreciate them as your brothers. They’re pretty much like your brothers. My time here was great. From the fans, we can’t forget the fans. The fans have been great. For me, it’s very, very special.”

In 179 games for the Twins over two seasons, Thome batted .266 with 37 home runs and 99 RBIs. Thome was always a threat in big situations for the Twins. He noted his walk-off homer on Aug. 17, 2010, off Matt Thornton against the White Sox — a 10th-inning two-run blast — as one of his most memorable moments with Minnesota.

Thome was limited by injuries this season, playing in just 71 games with the Twins and serving two stints on the disabled list. But he provided a few highlights this season, including hitting his 600th career home run in Detroit.

“In all honesty, it’s fun to watch him walk up [to the plate] no matter what uniform he’s in, but I’d love to see him walking up in ours,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Everybody here had an opportunity to hang with a pretty special person, a great baseball player. … We got to see No. 600 and that made it really pretty cool.”

In his first 17 games since being traded to the Indians, Thome hit .250 with one home run, three RBIs and two doubles.

Nine years after leaving for Philadelphia and making stops in Chicago, Cleveland and Minnesota along the way, Thome returned to Cleveland on Aug. 26, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd of 41,337 as he stepped in for his first at-bat. Thome hit a homer a day later, the 335th of his Indians career and 602nd overall.

“Getting an opportunity to go back and be in a place where you all started is kind of a neat experience,” Thome said.

“Wherever you start there’s always going to be that sentimental spot in your heart towards that team. And then, if you’re lucky to play almost twenty years, you wonder at the end, if you will ever get that opportunity to come back. I was granted that wish to do it. It is something very special. I will never forget it. That first night in Cleveland was very special.

As he was asked about his time in Minnesota and Cleveland, Thome talked a lot about the relationships with teammates and giving advice to younger, inexperienced players.

Indians manager Manny Acta said Thome’s influence in the clubhouse has been the biggest thing he has brought to the team.

“He’s hit a ton of home runs in our clubhouse and in our dugout,” Acta said. “He hit a huge one that helped us win a ballgame on the field, but other than that, he’s been a great influence on our young kids and coaching staff. He’s just very supportive of all of these guys and he shares a lot of knowledge. He’s a special person. He contributes in a lot of ways other than just swinging a bat.”

While he and the Indians may not have been able to keep up with the Tigers this month, Thome said he expected big things out of the Indians in coming years.

“They’ve got a chance to be really, really good here for a long time,” Thome said. “I think it’s kind of neat from my end to see them do what they’re doing, because where you start, ultimately you always have history there.”

Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.