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Joe Mauer didn’t receive any gifts for returning from a lengthy stint on the disabled list.

No Carl Soderberg Jersey , his reward was an immediate matchup against two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber.

”Yeah, welcome back, right?” Mauer said with a laugh.

The six-time All-Star returned to the lineup on Friday after missing 25 games with a strained neck and concussion-like symptoms sustained when he was injured diving for a foul ball last month.

And while facing Kluber might not be an ideal first step back, the struggling Twins, who have one of the league’s weakest offenses, were thrilled to have Mauer back in their lineup.

”It’s good for any manager to have a chance to put a guy like Joe’s name down there,” said manager Paul Molitor, who had Mauer batting first against Kluber in the opener of a three-game series against the AL Central-leading Indians. ”Yeah, he’s in a good place, he’s excited to be here and we welcome him back. Hopefully, he can give us a little bit of a boost.”

The Twins came in seven games under .500 and batting just .238 as a team. They also entered the series with only three runs in the past 19 innings.

That’s not ideal against Kluber, who is 5-0 with a 0.76 ERA against the AL Central this season.

”Obviously, he’s one of the best in the game,” Mauer said. ”That’s the big leagues. You’re going to face the best night in and night out. It’s a tough matchup first game, but the one tomorrow (Carlos Carrasco) is pretty tough, too. I’m just excited to be back.”

Mauer has been symptom-free for a week. He went hitless in 10 at-bats over three games in a rehab stint with Triple-A Rochester Joel Armia Jersey Kids , but the three-time batting champion feels ready to go.

”It’s been going good,” said Mauer, who was batting .283 with one homer and 11 RBIs when he got hurt. ”Obviously, I went down there and got in a couple of games and did everything I had to do to get back here. I’m excited to check off those boxes, get a couple of at-bats and play in the field for nine innings.”

Mauer said he didn’t have to make any diving stops in the field at Rochester, and that he won’t alter his game just because of the recent injury.

”My experience is when you try to do that you end up getting hurt,” he said. ”I got the full clear to go and I’m excited for that.”.

—


Lance Lynn gets the start Friday night when the Minnesota Twins continue a four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles at Target Field.

Lynn’s 2018 season has not gone anywhere near the way he may have envisioned when he hit the free-agent market for the first time last fall, ending a six-year run with the Cardinals.

Instead of landing a lucrative, multi-year deal he went unsigned until late in spring training, when he agreed to a one-year, $12 million contract with the Minnesota Twins — approximately $5.4 million less than he would have earned under the Cardinals’ one-year qualifying offer he turned down last November.

After an abbreviated spring camp, Lynn got off to an abysmal start. He went 0-3 in his first five outings, posting an 8.37 ERA in those contests but finally got into a groove when the calendar flipped to May. He went 5-2 with a 2.88 ERA over his next nine turns.

Lynn, who is 5-7 with a 5.49 ERA for the season, continues his hit-or-miss season Friday after losing his last two starts. He is fresh off his worst outing of the season when he allowed seven runs on five hits and three walks, failing to get out of the second inning in an 11-10 loss at Wrigley Field on Sunday.

Cubs pitcher Jon Lester homered off Lynn during a disastrous second inning that also included Lynn failing to cover first on a routine grounder Josh Morrissey Jersey , which kept the inning going long enough for the Cubs to take a big lead.

“We gave them an extra out,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said of Lynn’s gaffe. “I think that was the biggest thing that stuck out to me. An offense like that, outs when you don’t get them, that was problematic to me. The arithmetic says that was an extra five runs because of that particular play.”

Lynn is 1-1 with a 7.30 ERA in three games (two starts) versus Baltimore.

The Twins snapped a six-game losing streak in the series opener Thursday night and, in turn, extended the misery for the Orioles, who have lost three in a row and 10 of their last 11.

They’ll turn to Dylan Bundy (6-7, 3.75 ERA) to snap the skid. Baltimore plans to activate the right-hander from the disabled list Friday and get him back on the mound for the first time since suffering a sprained left ankle June 23.

He went 3-7 with a 4.46 ERA through his first 12 starts of the season but got hot in June, posting a 1.98 ERA while going 3-0 in four starts before suffering the injury while running the bases after collecting his first big league hit.

His return comes as the Orioles need to decide a course of action ahead of the trade deadline. At 24-62, Baltimore owns the worst record in baseball and will almost certainly be a seller as the deadline approaches.

The 25-year-old Dylan is in his third full big league season and still has three more years of team control, making him an intriguing candidate for a motivated buyer.

The Twins’ Logan Morrison has two home runs in 15 at-bats versus Bundy, who is 0-2 with a 3.60 ERA in four career games (three starts) versus Minnesota. Bundy faced the Twins in his first start of this season, giving up five hits over seven shutout innings in Baltimore’s 3-2 victory on March 29.