Twins SP: Kris Johnson Dozier 2B Suzuki C Morales 1B Plouffe 3B Arcia RF Nunez LF Escobar SS Fuld CF The Pitcher and whoever pinch hits for the Pitcher Rockies SP: Jorge De La Rosa Blackmon RF Stubbs CF Gonzalez LF Tulowitski SS Morneau 1B Arenado 3B Rosario C LeMahieu 2B The Pitcher and whoever pinch hits for the pitcher Things to Think About: 1. Colorado -- This is a state that contains Mountains in what is widely considered to be the Western side of the United States. Anything West of us is the Western side of the United States and by us... I'm excluding... Ash, Chief and Glunn. Actually... I don't know where everyone lives so I'm excluding everyone... Everything West of me is the Western United States and everything South of me is the Southern United States. So all of you people in South Dakota with your crazy accents, front porches, cars on blocks and magnolia trees are below the Mason Dixon line because I've decided that's the case. Back to Colorado... The surveyors who laid out the state lines tried real hard to make the state perfectly square. They had no idea that later on this square state would be over run by Hippies once marijuana was legalized. Workers in all professions are higher than a kite. When you call a phone number in Colorado you are greeted with a decent sized pause before someone says... "Oh Right... Hello Dude". Stoned Doctors and Surgeons have introduced a new word into the medical lexicon of language... That word is "Oops". Everyone is feeling good in Colorado but it is balanced with a large dose of paranoia. The population got stacked up on the Eastern Side of the Rocky Mountains. Kinda like they came west... couldn't get over the mountains and the people kept coming and nobody could move and they all just piled up. The ones who made it over the Mountains... Opened up Ski Resorts and gave them names like "Vail", "Aspen", "Beaver Creek" and "Here's a good spot to break your leg". Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne once traveled from Rhode Island to Colorado in a sheep dog in 1847. 2. Coors Field -- The Home stadium of the Rockies opened up in 1995. It was named Coors Field because of Coors Beer which is made in a totally different town. In an effort to slow down the amount of home runs hit. Baseballs are stored in a humidor in an effort to make sure that the tobacco leaves that wrap up the baseball are in perfect condition and optimal taste. If the Twins can't hit at Coors Field... They might not be able to hit anywhere. 3. The Rockies -- The Rockies are a mountain chain that stretches from New Mexico to British Columbia... They are also a baseball team but I need to be clear that the Baseball Team is nothing like a mountain chain at all. Confusion over what you are referring to has been around for decades since the Colorado Rockies Baseball Team were formed. "Are you going to watch the Rockies tonight"? "Watch Them? They just stand there?" "The Rockies Suck" "I don't know about that... They are better than the Cascades" The baseball team is a cursed franchise that can't find pitching... Actually they can find it... They just can't find pitchers who can perform in the light Colorado air. With a big outfield for balls to land in and fences that balls can easily fall over. Colorado pitchers all die a slow death. Pitchers arrive in Colorado and much like Batman tied to a conveyor belt that slowly pulls him toward a spinning saw blade while the Joker laughs and walks away. The difference between Colorado Pitchers and Batman is this... They don't escape... They have no utility belt. Pitching in Colorado kills the career of everyone. 4. Kris Johnson -- It's another look at Kris Johnson tonight as he makes a spot start. We will have to wait and see who is in the rotation after the break to replace Nolasco. I guess it's possible that it's Kris Johnson if he keeps pitching like he has. In AAA this year he has tossed a 2.75 ERA with a healthy amount of strikeouts. He has thrown 4.1 Innings with the Twins and did not allow a run while striking out 5. He did walk 6 in those 4.1 innings and he may want to cut back on that. Kris is 29 years old. He was born in West Covina California. I know what you are thinking... If there's a West Covina... There must be a Covina California... There is... It's to the North of West Covina. That means that West Covina lies to the south of Covina. They didn't have compasses in California for the longest time. Kris and his family moved to Blue Springs Missouri outside of Kansas City. During his time in High School at Blue Springs he tossed 5 no hitters. Teams were so impressed by his 5 no hitters that the Angels drafted him in the 50th Round in 2003. He opted to play ball at Wichita State and during his time at Wichita State he led the Missouri Valley Conference in ERA as a freshmen... This impressed the Major League Scouts so much that he was drafted in the 40th round by the Boston Red Sox in 2006. He impressed the Red Sox so much that they released him in 2011. The Pirates signed him and then traded him to the Twins in 2013 for Justin Morneau. Add it all up and Kris Johnson has thrown 14.2 MLB innings so I'm pretty sure that he is looking forward to starting tonight. I imagine he just wishes that it wasn't at Coors Field. 5. Insecurity -- I'm not sure why it is... But there are times when my wife feels a little insecure. She must have been feeling this way last night. She asked me point blank. "What do you think about me" and I replied "ABCDEFGHIJK" She didn't understand and she asked me what that meant. I said "You are A for Adorable... B Beautiful... C for Cute... Delightful... Elegant... Fashionable... Gorgeous and Hot. She said... "Aww... Thanks... Keep going... you forgot about... I J and K" To which I replied "I'm Just Kidding".