Brewers-Twins series on for Fourth of July weekend baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS - - The Minnesota Twins will begin a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers tonight at Target Field.

Minnesota was off on Thursday after notching a 1-0 win over the Dodgers on Wednesday. The Twins won two straight over Los Angeles to enter tonight's tilt 34-45. Francisco Liriano will be on the mound tonight for Minnesota. The Brewers will counter with Yovani Gallardo. The Brewers bashed the Twins 11-1 when Liriano opposed Gallardo last week.

The Milwaukee Brewers have ended nine games against powerhouse teams in the American League East – and they only won twice. The New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Brew Crew yesterday with a 5-0 shutout in the Bronx. The Brewers were no match for the Bronx Bombers, who outscored the Crew 22-to-4 in their three games. All told, the Brewers went 2-7 against the AL East, after going 1-2 against both Boston and Tampa Bay. Manager Ron Roenicke says the team shouldn’t hang its head – because the exact opposite could happen if they played the Yankees again.

But in the meantime, Milwaukee lost its three-game division lead. The Saint Louis Cardinals moved into a first-place tie with the Brewers atop the National League Central, after a three-game sweep at Baltimore which ended with a 9-6 victory last night.

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Brewers’ reliever Takashi Saito is expected to be activated tonight or tomorrow, after missing most of the season with a pair of injuries. Manager Ron Roenicke says the team will most likely send a position player down to Triple-“A” Nashville. First baseman Mat Gamel was called up this week to be a designated hitter for the Yankee series. But Roenicke says Gamel might not be the obvious candidate. He says there are several possibilities, and the Brewer brain trust has spent a lot of time this week deciding who to demote. Roenicke does not believe it will be Carlos Gomez, who has become the back-up center-fielder to Nyjer Morgan. Other names being tossed around are back-ups Josh Wilson, Mark Kotsay, and 40-year-old Craig Counsell.

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