After a dreary, overcast early portion of the week it’s sunny without a cloud in sight as the Minnesota Twins are preparing to begin a four-game series with the visiting New York Yankees at Target Field. The Twins play seven of their next 10 games against the Yankees, as they head to Yankee Stadium over the weekend spanning June 24-26.

There wasn’t much in the way of pregame access to the Twins before Thursday’s game, as the club didn’t get in from California until 5:30 a.m. Meanwhile, the Yankees had an afternoon game against the Rockies on Wednesday, and were in town and settled at the team hotel while the Twins were still in the midst of an ugly 10-2 loss to the Angels.

Manager Paul Molitor shrugged off any notion of him being tired in his pregame media availability Thursday afternoon. “I read an article this morning about one of the doctors in Orlando,” Molitor said. “He spent 40 hours in surgery and they made him go home. He wanted to keep working. So no, I’m not tired.”

Joe Mauer is out of the lineup for the Twins against C.C. Sabathia and the Yankees, but it’s worth noting that it was Sabathia on the mound in Mauer’s MLB debut. Mauer’s first MLB game was April 5, 2004, and he went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks batting eighth in the lineup for Ron Gardenhire’s Twins. Mauer missed much of that first season with a torn meniscus and further issues with the knee, but it was an eventful debut to be sure.

This is what the Twins lineup look like that day:

1. Shannon Stewart LF
2. Luis Rivas 2B
3. Doug Mientkiewicz 1B
4. Corey Koskie 3B
5. Torii Hunter CF
6. Jacque Jones RF
7. Matt LeCroy DH
8. Mauer C
9. Cristian Guzman SS

Brad Radke was on the mound, Michael Cuddyer pinch hit for Rivas and played second base late in the game and Stewart hit a three-run, walk-off home run — scoring Mauer and Nick Punto — against Chad Durbin for the Twins’ first win of the 2004 season. There would be plenty more.

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported earlier Thursday that closer Glen Perkins — who made just two appearances before he was waylaid by shoulder issues early in the season — would miss the rest of the season as he likely prepares to undergo surgery on his ailing left shoulder. Perkins had an MRI and visited renowned surgeon Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles earlier in the week, and a source familiar to the situation told the Star Tribune’s LaVelle E. Neal III that surgery on his labrum would likely be necessary.

Perkins, Terry Ryan and team physician Dr. John Steubs are expected to address the media prior to Thursday’s game, and we’ll have more of an update then.

Molitor said he wasn’t terribly surprised it had come to this with Perkins, who had shown some signs of improvement but not enough for his manager to be overly optimistic. “I’d like to be able to spell it all out, but I can’t. We all kind of know where this is headed,” Molitor said. “The procedure is going to be forthcoming.” Molitor wouldn’t commit to whether or not he thought Perkins would be ready for the start of the 2017 season, but agreed when a reporter asked if this situation was symbolic of the 2016 Twins on the whole. “I think you could say that,” Molitor said. “A lot of things haven’t gone particularly well, but losing Glen has been tough to swallow.”

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Speaking of injuries, it appears one Twins player is headed back from the disabled list. After a three-game rehab stint, Danny Santana is headed back to the Twins per Kevin Oklobzija, who covers the Rochester Red Wings for the Democrat and Chronicle.

Santana played a bit of center field, right field and shortstop over the three games he spent in Rochester, and appears likely to resume a utility role upon his return to the Twins.

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Headed back that way is outfielder Darin Mastroianni, who will join the Red Wings in Toledo on Friday to start a rehab stint. Mastroianni has been on the disabled list since late May with a strained left oblique, and is now finally ready to get moving again. Those words are based on comments from Mastroianni, who is a bit of a grinder who gets antsy when he’s not able to do baseball activities.

Mastroianni said the silver lining about not making the trip with the club to California was that he got to spend some more time with his family. Mastroianni married a Twin Cities woman he met while rehabbing his 2013 injury, and they’ve made their home in the western suburbs of Minneapolis on a full-time basis. “I’d rather be out there with the guys,” Mastroianni said. “But staying at home with the family was pretty nice too.”

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Here’s how the Twins line up today:

The Twins will face Sabathia, who has made 36 starts against them and was already a grizzled three-year veteran when he pitched in Mauer’s debut — as a 23-year-old. This is the 16th season of Sabathia’s big league career, and while he doesn’t have the big-time stuff he had as a youngster, he’s put together a really nice run of late.

Sabathia battled knee issues and a well-publicized battle with alcoholism last season, but appears to have gotten both under wraps as he went to rehab at the end of last season and has found a solid knee brace that has aided him on the mound this season, according to CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa on the most recent episode of Midwest Swing.

Sabathia’s no longer working even in the 90s routinely with his fastball, but he has adapted recently to a more sinker-heavy approach, and according to Brooks Baseball has also added a cutter this season which has allowed him to pitch in to righties. After never really using a cutter before this year, he’s all the way up to 31.8 percent in terms of usage on it this season, with it a big part of his mix with the sinker (32.6 percent), slider (18.7 percent) and changeup (13.1 percent). The changeup (17.2 percent whiff rate) has been good for Sabathia this year, and the numbers bear out that he’s throwing mostly the cutter to righties (35.7 percent) and the sinker to lefties (51 percent). Guys of Sabathia’s caliber have to continue to adapt as their velocity diminishes, and so far this year he’s done a nice job of it. It’s hard to believe he had to compete for the rotation spot against Ivan Nova this spring.

On the mound for the Twins is Kyle Gibson, who is looking for some positivity after a really rough first start following coming off the disabled list. Gibson did not travel with the Twins to California, instead opting to stay back and throw a bullpen and focus on trying to get back to where he needs to be.

Gibson was hit pretty hard by the Red Sox over the weekend in his first start back — five earned runs in 5.2 innings, including a first inning home run to Jackie Bradley Jr. — and his season ERA now sits at 6.49. From a positivity standpoint, GIbson settled down and didn’t allow another run in innings two through five, but the Red Sox broke through again in the sixth and it only got uglier from there in a 15-4 Twins loss.

Gibson just wasn’t sharp against the Red Sox. In the first inning everything was up — the death knell for a sinkerballer who has to work low in the zone in order to be successful. On the home run to Bradley, it was a sinker that was left up, and it was tattooed on the first pitch of the plate appearance. If Gibson can locate the sinker, everything plays up from that. The slider and changeup both can be very good if the sinker cooperates. If that’s the case Thursday, that’ll probably be evident quickly.

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Notes and Quotes

• The Twins offense has been much better in June (98 wRC+ via Fangraphs) than it was in April (84) or May (86).
• Brian Dozier has picked up the pace over his last 20 games. He’s hitting .290/.400/.493 over that stretch with three home runs and a 14-11 K/BB ratio. Nine of his 22 hits have gone for extra bases, and his season OPS is up over the .700 mark for the first time since May 10.
• Only seven pitchers who have thrown at least 20 innings this season have not allowed a home run — Fernando Abad is one.
• A couple guys have put together really solid numbers so far in June for Rochester. Entering play Thursday, John Ryan Murphy had hit .323/421/.548 in 10 games this month, and Eddie Rosario checked in at .326/.373/.609. More surprisingly, Rosario has six strikeouts and four walks in June; he only had three walks in April and May combined.
• Molitor on Sabathia: “I think he’s a bit of a different pitcher. He’s always been smart, but he always had high-end stuff to make him one of the game’s elite. He’s had to make some adjustments along the way as the velocity has trickled down. You watch him and the way he’s able to use all his pitches now…he’s always been tough on lefties. A lot of people are happy for him. He’s persevered, found his way back and is pitching well.”
• Molitor on facing the Yankees and what it means: “It’s still has a bit of magic. You know it’s game, and personnel will change year after year, but it’s still the Yankees.”
• Molitor on how the Twins handle injuries and how they look back on what they could do differently: “I think there’s a constant review of how we do pretty much everything that goes on in our organization. You’re always kind of going back and seeing if you’re doing things properly, or can you do things better? That includes our medical team, whether it’s our doctors or training/strength staff. We’re constantly getting new information on ways to improve and try to prevent, but we also know the physicality of sport….some things are going to be unpreventable. But we’re always trying to be better.”

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne covers the Minnesota Twins for Zone Coverage and is also the site's senior editor. He hosts the Midwest Swing podcast for the site as well. He and his wife Amanda live in the outer Twin Cities suburbs with their daughter, Harper.

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