CLEVELAND (AP) — The Minnesota Twins’ injury-ravaged season took yet another bizarre twist when Danny Valencia and Denard Span were held out of the lineup Friday night after being involved in a minor traffic accident.

Valencia and Span were out of the lineup against the Cleveland Indians after suffering general soreness and headaches in the accident.

The players were traveling in separate vehicles to the airport Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis following a victory over Seattle that broke an 11-game losing streak. Valencia’s car, a Range Rover Sport being driven by his fiancee, stopped in rush hour traffic and was rear-ended by Span’s car. Span, also driving a Range Rover, said he was traveling about 10 mph when he hit Valencia’s car.

Both vehicles suffered minor damage.

The Twins, who won the AL Central the last two seasons, have been riddled with injuries in 2011. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano head the list of key players who have missed significant time with injuries. Minnesota is 60-95, the worst record in the league.

“We need a rabbit’s foot,” Valencia said. “We have bad luck. It’s unfortunate. When you think it can’t get any worse, it does.”

Even when the Twins finally got some good news, it was tempered by another negative turn of events.

“We had a great walkoff win, our first in about two weeks, and the next thing you know I think I had a bomb drop on my car,” Valencia said.

“It’s not something I expected coming into the ballpark today,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “I expect a lot of things, really I expect just about anything, but that kind of put me over the top on what else can happen.”

Both players said Friday they had headaches, but hope to be in the lineup Saturday. Span, who has been on the disabled list twice because of a concussion he sustained in June, played Wednesday, his first action since Aug. 13.

“I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” said Span, who has appeared in only 66 games. “It’s been a rough year for me. It could have been a lot worse. I’m thankful it wasn’t.”

Valencia said his fiancee was seeing a doctor in Minneapolis on Friday.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

CLEVELAND (AP)—The Minnesota Twins’ injury-ravaged season took yet another
bizarre twist when Danny Valencia(notes) and Denard Span(notes) were held out of the lineup
Friday night after being involved in a minor traffic accident.

Valencia and Span were out of the lineup against the Cleveland Indians after
suffering general soreness and headaches in the accident.

The players were traveling in separate vehicles to the airport Thursday
afternoon in Minneapolis following a victory over Seattle that broke an 11-game
losing streak. Valencia’s car, a Range Rover Sport being driven by his fiancee,
stopped in rush hour traffic and was rear-ended by Span’s car. Span, also
driving a Range Rover, said he was traveling about 10 mph when he hit Valencia’s
car.

Both vehicles suffered minor damage.

The Twins, who won the AL Central the last two seasons, have been riddled
with injuries in 2011. Joe Mauer(notes), Justin Morneau(notes), Jason Kubel(notes), Joe Nathan(notes) and
Francisco Liriano(notes) head the list of key players who have missed significant time
with injuries. Minnesota is 60-95, the worst record in the league.

“We need a rabbit’s foot,” Valencia said. “We have bad luck. It’s
unfortunate. When you think it can’t get any worse, it does.”

Even when the Twins finally got some good news, it was tempered by another
negative turn of events.

“We had a great walkoff win, our first in about two weeks, and the next
thing you know I think I had a bomb drop on my car,” Valencia said.

“It’s not something I expected coming into the ballpark today,” manager
Ron Gardenhire said. “I expect a lot of things, really I expect just about
anything, but that kind of put me over the top on what else can happen.”

Both players said Friday they had headaches, but hope to be in the lineup
Saturday. Span, who has been on the disabled list twice because of a concussion
he sustained in June, played Wednesday, his first action since Aug. 13.

“I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” said Span, who has appeared in only 66
games. “It’s been a rough year for me. It could have been a lot worse. I’m
thankful it wasn’t.”

Valencia said his fiancee was seeing a doctor in Minneapolis on Friday.

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Minnesota Twins’ injury-ravaged season took yet another bizarre twist when Danny Valencia and Denard Span were held out of the lineup Friday night after being involved in a minor traffic accident.

Valencia and Span were out of the lineup against the Cleveland Indians after suffering general soreness and headaches in the accident.

The players were traveling in separate vehicles to the airport Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis following a victory over Seattle that broke an 11-game losing streak. Valencia’s car, a Range Rover Sport being driven by his fiancee, stopped in rush hour traffic and was rear-ended by Span’s car. Span, also driving a Range Rover, said he was traveling about 10 mph when he hit Valencia’s car.

Both vehicles suffered minor damage.

The Twins, who won the AL Central the last two seasons, have been riddled with injuries in 2011. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano head the list of key players who have missed significant time with injuries. Minnesota is 60-95, the worst record in the league.

“We need a rabbit’s foot,” Valencia said. “We have bad luck. It’s unfortunate. When you think it can’t get any worse, it does.”

Even when the Twins finally got some good news, it was tempered by another negative turn of events.

“We had a great walkoff win, our first in about two weeks, and the next thing you know I think I had a bomb drop on my car,” Valencia said.

“It’s not something I expected coming into the ballpark today,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “I expect a lot of things, really I expect just about anything, but that kind of put me over the top on what else can happen.”

Both players said Friday they had headaches, but hope to be in the lineup Saturday. Span, who has been on the disabled list twice because of a concussion he sustained in June, played Wednesday, his first action since Aug. 13.

“I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” said Span, who has appeared in only 66 games. “It’s been a rough year for me. It could have been a lot worse. I’m thankful it wasn’t.”

Valencia said his fiancee was seeing a doctor in Minneapolis on Friday.

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Minnesota Twins will need a big second half in order to make a charge in the American League Central standings. They got off to a pretty good start on Thursday night at Target Field, knocking off the Kansas City Royals by a final score of 8-4.

Things did not get off to a promising start for the Twins, as the Royals found themselves with the bases loaded and two out against Minnesota starter Francisco Liriano. Liriano then uncorked a wild pitch that went to the backstop, allowing Melky Cabrera to score from third. Mauer. . .a former quarterback, remember. . .then attempted to throw what looked like an option pitch to Liriano covering home plate, but the ball skipped past him, allowing Alex Gordon to score as well, giving the Royals two unearned runs and an early 2-0 lead.

Kansas City added another run in the fourth, when a one-out single by Brayan Pena brought Mike Moustakas in to score to make the score 3-0. Pena was thrown out at second attempting to stretch his single into a double, and Liriano then retired Alex Escobar to end the inning. The Royals would not score again until the top of the ninth inning.

The Twins’ offense, on the other hand, finally found itself in the bottom of the fifth. After Alexi Casilla and Joe Mauer were quickly retired, Royals’ starter Bruce Chen then walked Michael Cuddyer, and the Twins strung together a series of two-out hits. Danny Valencia smashed a double to deep right to score Cuddyer and get the Twins on the scoreboard at 3-1. Delmon Young, who made his return to the lineup on Thursday night, doubled to deep left to bring Valencia home and make the score 3-2. The rally was then capped by Trevor Plouffe, also making his return to the lineup, launching a two-run homer into the left field seats to put the Twins ahead 4-3.

Minnesota scored another quartet of runs in the bottom of the seventh, when reliever Blake Wood came into the game for the Royals in relief of Chen. After Young singled to center for his third hit of the evening (and was lifted for pinch-runner Jason Repko), Plouffe drew a walk, and Luke Hughes sacrificed the two runners up 90 feet to put runners on second and third with one out. Wood then seemingly forgot where exactly home plate was located, as he walked Tsuyoshi Nishioka to load the bases, and then walked Ben Revere to force a run home and make the score 5-3. He then hit Casilla with a pitch to force in another run, making the score 6-3. Everett Teaford then came in to relieve Wood, and was greeted by a Joe Mauer single to center field to score both Nishioka and Revere to move the score up to 8-3.

The Royals managed to sneak a run across in the top of the ninth when Melky Cabrera lifted a sacrifice fly off of Phil Dumatrait to make the score 8-4, but would get no closer as Dumatrait retired Gordon on strikes to end the game.

Liriano (6-7, 4.76 ERA) got the victory for Minnesota, settling down after the shaky start to allow three runs on seven hits while striking out four in seven innings of work. Chen (5-3, 3.56 ERA) took the loss for Kansas City, allowing four runs on nine hits in five innings pitched.

The same two teams will get together on Friday night at Target Field, with the first pitch scheduled to take place at 7:10 PM Central time. Right-hander Luke Hochevar (5-8, 5.46 ERA) will get the ball for Kansas City, while the Twins will turn to righty Nick Blackburn (7-6, 4.24 ERA).

CHICAGO (AP) — The Minnesota Twins say Joe Mauer is good at everything he does, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise that he took to a new position as if he’d been playing there for years.

Mauer had three hits, drove in two runs and was flawless in his first game at first base as the Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 6-2 on Thursday night.

“Teammates were supporting me, it was a lot of fun,” Mauer said. “It was good to see the smiles and get a win. That’s probably why I was most nervous because I wanted to make the plays for my teammates.”

Mauer, the 2009 AL MVP, had started 714 games in the major leagues in the field, all at catcher. He last played first base in 2002 in Class A.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Twins starter Carl Pavano said. “I know Joe was probably a little nervous but none of us were. We know what kind of athlete he is.”

In the bottom of the first, Mauer was immediately tested at his new position. He nabbed Omar Vizquel’s hard liner to start an unassisted double play. Then he scooped a grounder hit by Adam Dunn and stepped on first, accounting for all three outs in the inning.

“I’m just glad it’s over with,” Mauer said. “I think that first inning was good for me personally to get a couple of balls hit at me. I had a lot of fun tonight.”

Ben Revere also had three hits and two RBIs for the Twins, who beat Chicago for the eighth straight time.

Carl Pavano (6-6) allowed six hits and two runs over seven innings for Minnesota, which has won 27 of 33 overall against its AL Central rivals. He walked two and struck out four.

“It always helps with that nice lead the guys gave me off the bat,” Pavano said. “We put up some nice at-bats against a guy that’s really been successful this year. I think we advantage of some bad counts he got into.”

Chicago right-hander Phil Humber (8-5) lasted 3 2-3 innings, allowing season-highs of 11 hits and six runs.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka had two hits and scored two runs for the Twins, who had 13 hits, including 12 singles.

“We were running around the bases pretty good, slapping the ball around,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Executed, got on second, got them over and got them in. A lot of things went our way early in the ballgame tonight against a very good pitcher.”

Mark Teahen hit his third homer for Chicago, a two-run shot in the fifth.

“It was not a whole lot of fun out there,” Humber said. “Even when I did execute my pitches it seemed like they were putting the barrel on the ball.”

Minnesota has beaten Chicago all five times in their meetings this season and have won 13 of its last 15 games at U.S. Cellular Field. The White Sox have dropped four of five overall.

The Twins had been working out Mauer at first base in batting practice recently, hoping that an occasional respite from the rigors of catching will keep him fresh while keeping his bat in the lineup.

“It was exciting watching Joe over there at first base,” Gardenhire said. “We never knew what would happen. They attacked him right away. He handled everything pretty good. He’s an athlete.”

Despite all the attention focused on Mauer’s temporary position shift, the first base alternative is just that for Gardenhire, an occasional option to keep Mauer’s bat in the lineup.

“We’ll see what I feel like tomorrow,” Mauer said. “The manager asked me to go over there and play. That’s what I did tonight. I had fun doing it. But I’m a catcher. I think sometimes we lose track of that, but that’s what I’m here to do.”

One of baseball’s biggest surprises this season, Humber had gone 6-1 with a 2.52 ERA over his last 10 starts, leading to cries that he should have made the AL All-Star team. He didn’t show that form Thursday, as the Twins jumped on him with an aggressive small-ball attack from the outset.

Minnesota broke on top in first when Revere singled, stole second, went to third on a fly to right and scored on Mauer’s single through the box.

The Twins tacked on two runs in second. Danny Valencia led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Nishioka’s single up the middle. Nishioka then stole second and scored on Revere’s single to center.

“They executed everything they had to execute early in the game,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “Everything. Get on base, steal, move the guy over. Score, steal, move the guy over, score.”

The singles attack against Humber continued in fourth, knocking him out of the game.

With one out, Nishioka, Drew Butera and Revere all singled, scoring the first run. Alexei Casilla struck out, but Mauer singled to right, scoring Butera. Paul Konerko took the throw in from right, then flipped toward Gordon Beckham, who was backing up first base, trying to catch Mauer napping. Instead, the ball rolled behind Beckham, allowing Revere to score and putting the Twins up 6-0.

Michael Cuddyer followed by lining a shot off Humber, reaching on the 10th single among Minnesota’s 11 hits to that point. He was the last batter Humber faced.

“(Humber has) been throwing the ball great,” Mauer said. “I caught him a couple of years ago and he’s really put it together. We were just trying to get pitches we could handle.”

Rookie lefty Hector Santiago retired the first eight batters he faced and threw 4 1-3 scoreless innings.

Teahen got White Sox on board in the fifth with his homer to the opposite field, cutting the Twins’ lead to 6-2. Chicago could have gotten more if not for a couple of solid defensive plays by the Twins.

First, Mauer went to his knees to stop a grounder Vizquel, probably saving a run. Then Nishioka definitely saved a run, ending the inning with a diving snag of Konerko’s smash into the hole and a throw to a stretching Mauer at first.

NOTES: Before the game, it was announced that Konerko had won MLB’s “final vote” and earned the last spot on the AL All-Star roster. Konerko received a loud ovation when he came to bat in the first inning. This will be his fifth All-Star appearance. … Twins trainer Rick McWane said that an MRI on starter Scott Baker showed a mild flexor strain. As a precaution, Baker will skip his scheduled start on Sunday and will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break. He is undergoing treatment for the injury and isn’t being allowed to throw. … Santiago had the longest scoreless relief outing for the White Sox since Tony Pena threw six shutout innings against Oakland on Sept. 20.