Here are the lineups for both teams:

Twins:

Span – CF

Revere – RF

Mauer – DH

Willingham – LF

Morneau – 1B

Dozier – SS

Casilla – 2B

Butera – C

Carroll – 3B

De Vries – P

White Sox:

De Aza – CF

Beckham – 2B

Dunn – DH

Konerko – 1B

Rios – RF

Pierzynski – C

Viciedo – LF

Ramirez – SS

Hudson – 3B

Humber – P

Here are the lineups for both teams:

Twins:

Span – CF

Mastroianni – RF

Mauer – C

Willingham – LF

Morneau – 1B

Doumit – DH

Dozier – SS

Plouffe – 3B

Carroll – 2B

Diamond – P

White Sox:

De Aza – CF

Beckham – 2B

Dunn – DH

Konerko – 1B

Rios – RF

Pierzynski – C

Viciedo – LF

Ramirez – SS

Hudson  – 3B

Sale – P

Check TwinCities.com and this blog for more throughout the day. You can also follow me on Twitter at @BenGoesslingPP.

Whatever it was, it was surprisingly good late in the game; Walters threw 15 of his 27 breaking balls in the final three innings of the game. He got seven of his final nine outs with it, and threw it as his final pitch on all five of his strikeouts in the last three innings. In the eighth inning, when Walters struck outside the side on 10 pitches, five of them were breaking balls.

So why was the pitch so effective? At 76-78 mph, it was anywhere from 13 to 15 mph slower than his fastball. It had some of the vertical break of a curveball (MLB’s PitchFX data had the pitch dropping 3.8 inches), but it also moved 7.7 inches away from right-handed hitters, on average. And to left-handers like Adam Dunn, it worked well as a back-door pitch, crossing the strike zone near the slugger’s back foot.

Walters got seven of his nine swings and misses with the pitch, meaning hitters were missing it more than a quarter of the time he threw it. That might not last as hitters get a feel for it, but when Walters’ start really got impressive last night, it was because of his breaking ball.

The pitch was so good in the final two innings, in fact, that Walters didn’t throw a changeup. He used his fastball and cutter, and the breaking ball was there to put hitters away.

“I think that’s what he really had working today – slowing those hitters down a little bit,” Mauer said. “It’s a little slower than the fastball and cutter and things like that. He did a great job changing speeds and attacking hitters.”

Said Walters: “Early in the game, my changeup was better, so I stuck with that. I didn’t want to change a whole lot, so  I threw (the breaking ball) in spots that weren’t going to hurt us. It got better as the game went on, so I went to it.”

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Twins:

Span – CF

Revere – RF

Mauer – C

Willingham – LF

Morneau – 1B

Doumit – DH

Dozier – SS

Casilla – 2B

Carroll – 3B

Walters – P

White Sox:

De Aza – CF

Beckham – 2B

Dunn – DH

Konerko – 1B

Pierzynski – C

Rios – RF

Viciedo – LF

Ramirez – SS

Escobar – 3B

Floyd – P

But after what happened at Miller Park on Sunday, there could be more moves coming. Marquis lost his fourth consecutive start, allowing at least five runs for the third straight time. His sinker was flat again, and the Brewers teed off on it for two home runs in the first inning. He allowed eight hits, walked a batter and hit another one.

(Oddly enough, it might not have been his worst start against Milwaukee; he pitched to just seven batters on April 18, 2010, allowing seven runs and becoming just the 15th starter in major league history not to record an out. I covered that game in Washington, which also featured a ghastly performance by Doug Davis, and the Brewers had to hang on for an 11-7 win.)

Anyway, Marquis would be scheduled to make his next start on Friday, but Gardenhire sounded after the game like he will at least weigh some options before sorting out the rotation.

“The ball’s up. A sinkerballer’s got to be down. His ball is up,” Gardenhire said. “They rolled some by people, they blooped a couple, but still, the balls were up. It’s just one of those performances that didn’t work out. He didn’t get it done. We’ve got to see where we’re at. … We’ll start looking at what we need to do come Tuesday.”

Swarzak worked 2 1/3 innings today, throwing 37 pitches, and Duensing threw 12 in a shutout inning. I’d assume Swarzak’s workload wasn’t heavy enough that he couldn’t pitch Thursday, but Duensing might be a better fit against Adam Dunn, anyway – though the slugger has been uncharacteristically good against lefties lately.

I threw this out on Twitter today, and I’ll post it here, too; Liam Hendriks, who has impressed the Twins with the way he’s pitched in three starts at Triple-A Rochester, would be scheduled to start again on Wednesday. If the Twins decided they wanted to make a move in their rotation, Hendriks could pitch in Chicago on an extra day’s rest, and Pavano could pitch Friday. The Twins were also close to calling up Cole DeVries earlier this month, and he could go Thursday on regular rest, though they would need to add him to the 40-man roster. Any of those moves would mean pulling someone off the current major league roster, but the Twins would have some options there. This is all speculative, but it’d also be easy enough to do. The Twins put together a four-game win streak largely because of solid pitching the last few days, and the two starters who have given them a lift (Walters and Scott Diamond) came up from Rochester.

Maybe they’ll go to that well again, maybe they won’t. But after what happened Sunday, things could be ripe for another shakeup.

That outing is scheduled to come on Thursday, May 24 against the White Sox, but if the Twins decide to back Pavano off, Gardenhire said they would give the ball to a reliever who has made a spot start before. That would leave Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak as the likely candidates to make the start. The Twins could also pitch Pavano on regular rest and use a spot starter when they return home on Friday, May 25, if they determine struggling right-hander Jason Marquis needs an extra day to work things out.

The Twins will likely need to account for a start somewhere this week, with Nick Blackburn on the disabled list because of a strained left quadriceps muscle. Because of an off-day on Monday, May 21, the Twins could get by until Saturday, May 26 without a fifth starter, but it didn’t sound on Sunday like Blackburn would be returning any time soon.

“He’s back home getting treatment,” Gardenhire said. “I haven’t heard a word since. The DL is good for him. He had the knife feeling going in his left thigh and he needs that to get better before he pitches.”

Gardenhire wouldn’t get into specifics about who would start, other than to say the reliever who would pitch would be someone who has experience in spot starts. That would likely rule out Francisco Liriano, whom the Twins are trying to work back into the rotation through a bullpen stint.

Marquis had the worst start of his career against the Brewers in 2010, in one of the strangest games I’ve ever covered. He was pitching for the Nationals, and took the mound on the heels of Livan Hernandez’s five-hit shutout. Marquis proceeded to put the first seven batters of the game on base, giving up four hits, hitting two batters and walking one. He came out of the game without retiring a batter, becoming the 15th starter in baseball history to leave the game without recording an out. And after several weeks of trying to pitch through bone chips in his elbow, Marquis had surgery that kept him on the disabled list for four months with a 20.52 ERA.

But hey, there’s little chance of that happening again today.

Anyway, here are the lineups for the Twins and Brewers:

Twins:

Span – CF

Revere – RF

Mauer – C

Willingham – LF

Morneau – 1B

Dozier – SS

Plouffe – 3B

Carroll – 2B

Marquis – P

Brewers:

Hart – RF

Morgan – CF

Braun – LF

Lucroy – C

Green – 3B

Ishikawa – 1B

Izturis – SS

Maysonet – 2B

Greinke – P

You can follow me during the game today at @BenGoesslingPP.

Twins:

Span CF

Revere RF

Willingham LF

Morneau 1B

Dozier SS

Casilla 2B

Butera C

Carroll 3B

Pavano P

Brewers:

Hart RF

Morgan CF

Braun LF

Ramirez 3B

Lucroy C

Weeks 2B

Green 1B

Maysonet SS

Gallardo P

Gardenhire didn’t blink in that spot. He kept Diamond in the game.

“I played National League baseball,” Gardenhire said. “The kid’s throwing the heck out of the ball. In the top of the sixth, we can’t take him out there after pitching our bullpen seven innings (on Wednesday). It was pretty easy. I just told him to swing. He didn’t swing. I just wanted him to swing – don’t hit into a double play, but just swing. He said, ‘I think those pitches were high.’ And I said, ‘Be careful – you’re getting those pitches on the other side.’”

Diamond was called out on strikes, and wound up coming out of the game in the sixth inning after hanging a curveball that Ryan Braun used to dent the scoreboard in center field. But he’d only thrown 75 pitches to that point, and he’d actually singled in the fifth inning, notching his first major league hit in his second plate appearance.

I’ve seen National League managers lift their pitchers in that spot — Manny Acta used to do it in Washington when he had a chance to ignite a rally and preserve a win for a young pitcher — but from here, it would have seemed odd if Gardenhire had lifted Diamond in that spot. As it was, Denard Span followed him with a two-run single that split the game open and rendered Braun’s homer moot in the bottom of the inning. But more importantly, Diamond has been the Twins’ most consistent starter as of late, and playing on the road, Gardenhire would have been looking at at least four innings of work from his bullpen. It’s easy to look back after the home run and say Diamond should have come out in the top of the sixth, but I wonder how many people were saying that at the time.

In the end, things worked out for the Twins, with Diamond running his record to 3-0 and the team winning its third straight game for the first time this year. He cautioned himself against using his curveball too much after the game, but the pitch also helped him strike out Corey Hart in the fifth inning after Hart had singled off Diamond in two fastball-heavy matchups to start the game.

“In that Braun situation, I went to the well too many times,” he said. “I did hang it, but I think he was right on it, no matter what. I’ve got to make a bit of an adjustment there, just to try to get him off it if I’m going to go back to it. But I think that’s just all experience that helps (in the future).”