TWINS NOTES:

·    The Twins finished the nine-game home stand with a record of 4-5…the Twins improved their record in series play to 14-11-4 and beat the White Sox in a series at the Dome for the fourth consecutive time, dating back to April of 2008…the Twins have out-scored the White Sox 46-20 in their last four meetings.

·    The Twins 96 home runs in the first-half of 2009, gives them the sixth most home runs before the break in Twins history…they passed their 2003 total of 94 with three homers today.

·    Scott Baker made his 10th career start vs. the White Sox and raised his record in those games to 4-3…he earned his ninth career win in the month of July, the most of any month for Baker…he allowed just his third home run (Thome) in his last seven starts…he retired 17 of the first 19 batters he faced today.

·    Denard Span (2-for-3) hit his second career home run off Mark Buehrle with the other coming on July 28, 2008…first career lead-off home run for Span…first lead-off home run for the Twins since Brendan Harris on June 20 vs. Houston…Span is batting .331 (52-for-157) with 33 runs scored and 23 rbi (31 total) at home this season…he’s hitting .383 (31-for-81) in the Dome since May 12, while the Twins are 13-7 during that span…second two-steal game of the season today for Span, 15th and 16th steals on the season.

·    Mike Redmond snapped an 0-for-16 with a second inning single…his previous hit came on June 10 at Oakland.

·    Carlos Gomez hit his second home run of the season with the other coming on June 14 at Chicago (NL)…he had five home runs before the All-star break in 2008…he is batting .354 (35-for-99) with seven doubles, three home runs and 17 rbi in 28 career games vs. the White Sox…career-high with five rbi in today’s game…third three-hit game of the season.

·    Joe Mauer set career-high with four strikeouts, passing his previous high of three strikeouts, done three times previously…his last three-strikeout game came on September 29, 2007 at Cleveland.

·    The announced crowd of 36,254 put the Twins homestand total at 308,705 (average of 34,301)…through 48 home dates this season, the Twins have drawn a total of 1,357,757.

·    Outfielder Rene Tosoni (Double-A, New Britain) represented the Twins today in MLB’s XM Future’s Game as a reserve outfielder…the game was delayed due to rain.

·    Play will resume for the Twins on July 17 when they play a three-game series vs. the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark…Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Joe Nathan will be representing the Twins and the American League in Major League Baseball’s 80th all-star game at Busch Stadium in St. Louis Tuesday night, July 14…Joe Mauer will be participating in the 2009 State Farm Home Run Derby tomorrow night, joining American Leaguer’s Nelson Cruz (TEX), Carlos Pena (TB) and Brandon Inge (DET) and National Leaguer’s Prince Fielder (MIL), Ryan Howard (PHI), Adrian Gonzalez (SD) and Albert Pujols (STL).