Game Time - 7:10 pm CDT

The Twins kick off their last series before the All-Star break against the Tigers tonight, and their last series at home until the Angels come to town on the 22nd. At 35-50, the Twins sit 15 games below .500 and in sole possession of last place in the division 15.5 games behind the Pale Hosers. I have to think that Messieurs Falvey and Levine are working overtime to figure out how to extract the most possible value for any player that's not a building block. At this point they have to have a chop shop mentality - strip  it to the frame, get what you can for the parts, and start rebuilding this broken down team.

There are no promotional giveaways tonight (there is a UND special ticket package), but tomorrow's game features the baby blue Twins replica jerseys to the first 10,000 fans, along with post-game fireworks. Saturday is the 30 HR Bomba Club bobblehead giveaway, and Sunday they're handing out Twins photo magnet schedules. The team has been drawing close to 20,000 fans per game at home since going to 100% capacity, even with the poor caliber of play on the field, so I'm thinking there's just a ton of pent up demand to take me out to the ballgame and low quality performance is not going to deter most people from coming out. It's nice being part of the ballpark experience for folks, but standing on concrete for six hours sure does take a toll on your lower extremities, and I'm working three out of four games this series starting tonight. I'm hoping for fast games with no extra innings, and any wins that the Twins might stumble into are a bonus. J.A. Happ on the hill for the Twins tonight, southpaw Tarik Skubal starting for the Tigers. Play ball!