Here are tonight’s lineups via LoHud (thanks, and welcome Sam Borden!):
| Twins lineup | Yankees lineup |
| Denard Span RF | Derek Jeter SS |
| Orlando Cabrera SS | Johnny Damon LF |
| Joe Mauer C | Mark Teixeira 1B |
| Jason Kubel DH | Alex Rodriguez 3B |
| Michael Cuddyer 1B | Hideki Matsui DH |
| Delmon Young LF | Nick Swisher LF |
| Carlos Gomez CF | Robinson Cano 2B |
| Matt Tolbert 3B | Melky Cabrera CF |
| Nick Punto 2B | Jose Molina C |
The two differences from Game 1’s lineup is swapping Molina for Jorge Posada and moving Molina behind Cabrera. Joe Girardi also swapped Cano and Swisher.
Starter A.J. Burnett will throw to a different battery mate than CC Sabathia did in Game 1. Posada was charged with two passed balls and Sabathia said one was his fault and the other was on Posada. Did that have anything to do with the decision to have Molina catching tonight? The answer is simply no, because Girardi already had this in the works before Wednesday’s game.
If Burnett feels more comfortable with Molina, then I have no problem with the move, even if Molina goes 0-for-5 tonight. Molina is a sharp defensive catcher, and the Red Sox have to go through the same thing regularly with Jason Varitek as catcher — and the Sox have been doing just fine.
