This afternoon is the final game of a four game series at Target Field. Twins will look to even the series before Cleveland comes into town this weekend. Start time: 12:10 CDT Weather: http://static6.depositphotos.com/1000366/543/i/950/depositphotos_5439919-stock-photo-rainbow-in-the-dark-blue.jpg Today's starting pitchers: Seattle: Ariel Miranda (6-2, 3.67) Minnesota: Jose Berrios (5-1, 2.84) Lineups TBA More on today's pitchers. Ariel Miranda: Other than a very poor outing in early May, looks like Miranda has pitched very well, pitching at least 5 innings and allowing no more than 2 runs in his previous six starts. Jose Berrios: We all know the Berrios story, or at least this season. Well in his previous start in San Francisco, Berrios made Hunter Pence flail like a Little Leaguer, and made Buster Posey flinch on a breaking ball. Yes, that Buster Posey. The All Star catcher guy who has caught thousands of breaking pitches in his career. Let that sink in. *** Well, the mailbag idea didn't work last night for a game thread opener, so it was optioned back to the minors immediately after the game. Sometimes there's a good reason things are the way they are, so here's five things to think about: 1. Ervin Santana. Coming off an effortless complete game shutout, Erv had a rocky outing last night. Santana surrendered a 2-run homer in the first inning to Ben Gamel on a slider above the belt that didn’t slide much, and then gave up a 3-run home run in the third inning on a mid- to high-80s nothing pitch at the belt to .200 hitter Mike Zunino that any of us could have hit 400 feet. Well, not me, because I only made it up to T-ball. Santana’s next start is scheduled for Tuesday the 20th at Target Field versus the White Sox. The extra day of rest between now and then might do him good. 2. Byron Buxton. I’ll be honest, I thought Buxton would be the breakout star more likely than Sano would, who was check swinging at historic rates at the end of spring training. Fortunately, Buxton has finally gotten his batting average back above the Zunino-Mendoza line. While he used the leg kick during his hot streak last September, and has also experimented with a Nelson Cruz type of toe tap, Buxton has now taken to a simple timing step with his lead foot, not even lifting it off the ground in most cases. He hit a home run using that last night. Hey, whatever works. Buxton also runs fast and catches baseballs that start out far away from him. 3. Taylor Rogers. The guy’s a great pitcher. He’s a lefty, and he’s tough against lefties, despite not having great lefty splits at the moment. (Hmmm..let me think about that logic...) Also, Rogers throws a curve. Blyleven and Nathan threw great curves. Also Tyler Duffey. Even Ryan Pressly. Good curve balls are hard to hit, they say. I wouldn't know, because I never hit one. Another thing about Taylor Rogers is that he came up the minors as a starter. Is he a candidate to return to the rotation in a future season? Or does he feel at home out in the bullpen? 4. Chris Gimenez. Gimenez is catching Berrios today, which is good because I think catchers can go through catching slumps. We’ve seen Castro allow some pitches to skip away from him lately, and maybe the pitching staff implosion — including Santana’s poor outing last night — is partly a result of Castro not retaining the pre-game scouting reports or executing the game plans with his pitch calling. Your guess is as good as mine. The problem is who catches when Gimenez pitches. Is position players pitching the new market efficiency? 5. The last player to think abou— OMG shiny thing over there Lineups TBA Play ball!