Twins

7/3 PREGAME NOTES: Mejia vs. Meyer, Carew Returns and Sano and Santana are All-Stars

Greetings from Target Field, where it is 80 degrees out and should remain in the mid-70s throughout the game. It’s a perfect day for baseball!

A lot is going on today. Rod Carew was in Minnesota for the first time since his heart transplant, and Miguel Sano and Ervin Santana spoke to the media for the first time since their All-Star nominations and Paul Molitor provided clarity on the Hector Santiago velocity situation. But let’s start with lineups.

It’s Adalberto Mejia (L, 3-3, 4.38 ERA) vs. old friend Alex Meyer (R, 3-4, 3.74). Mejia came over in the deal that sent Eduardo Nunez to the San Francisco Giants. Santiago and Alan Busenitz remain with the Twins, and while Santiago has had some issues (more on that in a bit), Busenitz looks like a capable reliever.

Still, it’s hard to see a relatively effective starter go — especially on a team that remains in contention for the AL Central crown halfway through the season and could use better starting pitching.

Here’s today’s lineups:

This is the first of seven home games before the break. Molitor said he’s happy to be home, and while he doesn’t want to limit what his team can do, he’ll take 41-40 halfway through the season.

“You get through this last stretch, we lost six out of eight, and you have to remind yourself of big picture things at times,” he said.

“The cliche is, yeah, would you have taken 41-40 coming out of Spring Training, and I think most people would say yes. But individually and as a team, there are times when you have to get greedy. When things are going good, you want them to go better, and so overall we’ll take what’s happened. But the key is how we’re gonna take this position and see if we can somehow find a way to keep pushing forward.”

Sano and Santana nominated as All-Stars

Miguel Sano and Ervin Santana will represent the Twins in the All-Star Game this year, which will be hosted by the Miami Marlins.

Sano leads all AL third basemen in RBI (58), is tied for first in walks (43) and is second in on-base percentage (.371), slugging percentage (.548) and OPS (.919). His 20 home runs rank third.

“We all thought that that would happen, and it starts when you start putting the sevens and eights next to his name when you do your reports when he comes into your system. All-Star-type player,” said Molitor, referring to the 20-80 rating system, where 80 is highest, that scouts use.

“I don’t know if it’s overly early, as far as what I felt that kid’s always been capable of, it’s just a matter of how he was gonna put it together. He’s learned a lot about playing up here in a short time. What the commitment is, your ability to bounce back — the game is not always gonna come to you easily, you gotta overcome a lot of adversity. And all of these areas that he’s just grown exponentially in a rather short time.

“There’s still a lot more in there, that’s the exciting part for people here and Twins fans. When he really gets it and can start doing some of these things day-in and day-out over a full season, it’s gonna be really special.”

As for Santana, Molitor is impressed by his ability to make it to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2008. Ironically, he was pitching for the Angels at the time.

“With Ervin’s case, it speaks a lot to a guy that’s had nine years between All-Star appearances, just the longevity and production and the fact that he’s taking such good care of himself,” said Molitor.

“He’s still a premier pitcher, he’s an All-Star here in the later stages of his career, and I think he’s still got a lot left.”

Santana currently ranks first in all of baseball with three shutouts, fifth in opponent average (.204), tied for fourth in wins (10) and ninth in WHIP (1.09).

Carew’s Heart of 29 campaign

Rod Carew made his first appearance in Minnesota since his heart transplant. He’s got a statue in front of Target Field, his number 29 was retired by the Twins in 1987 and his iconic Time magazine cover is in the media lunch room, but this is the first time he’s been to the Twin Cities in a while.

“It’s great to come back, this is my first trip flying, so I was really looking forward to it,” he said. “Every time I come back to the Twin Cities I feel like I’m coming back home.

“I was a kid when I started playing here and a lot of people saw me … I had a really bad tantrum during those early days, but a lot of those people saw me grow up and do a lot of good things with this organization, so it was good to come home.”

Carew famously threatened to kill our very own Mike Gelfand, something he and Tom Bernard discussed back in their KQ Morning Show days. His family has encouraged him to calm down around the media after many bouts with the press.

He said the Twins have helped him promote his Heart of 29 campaign, which encourages people to get regular checkups regarding heart health. For more on his campaign and appearance in the Twin Cities, see the Star Tribune’s write up and transcription of the interview.

Hector Santiago’s velocity

Santiago allowed four runs on four hits in 3.1 innings pitched in the Twins 6-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals yesterday. Santiago was upset about the short hook and the shift. He also said that he took some velocity off his fastball in order to locate the pitch better.

“I don’t have any problem with the player’s emotion and being able to express what he feels. Hector’s been really, really good for me as far as taking the ball, stepping up when I needed him, including that extra-inning game earlier,” said Molitor, who was confused why Santiago took that approach.

“My take yesterday was that I didn’t know that he had a different theory going into the game, what he was trying to do, but in watching it, it didn’t seem right to me. When it got to a point where I thought that it was the best decision, that’s the decision I made, and I’ll stand by the decision.”

He acknowledged that great pitchers like Chris Sale do that from time to time, and that incidents like these happen throughout the year. But that won’t prevent him from using his best judgement in situations like these.

“I just think that what I was seeing, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in how it was gonna proceed from that point,” he said.

“I get trying to throw more strikes and all those type of things, and guys can pitch in fairly significant variance with their fastball, whether it’s 87-93 mph. But it just seemed a little funny to me, watching him throw at what I thought was significantly slower speeds there for a while.”

I’ll be covering today, but Brandon has the next three games. I’ll be at the park for the last three before the All-Star Break. Follow us @tschreier3 and @Brandon_Warne.

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