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SWB RailRiders sweep doubleheader against Rochester

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<p>MOOSIC &#8212; Joe Mauer had never been to Scranton. Until Tuesday.</p><p>As the Minnesota Twins first baseman battles back from a cervical strain and concussion-like symptoms, which landed him on the 10-day disabled list on May 18, he was in the lineup for the Rochester Red Wings for Tuesday night&#8217;s doubleheader against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.</p><p>Mauer played both games of the doubleheader and is set to play first base in Wednesday&#8217;s series finale. He went 0-for-6 with a strikeout in a pair of Rochester losses, 5-2 and 2-0, respectively.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad that I&#8217;m getting to this point and getting on the field. Just excited to get back on a baseball,&#8221; Mauer said. &#8220;I&#8217;m excited. I&#8217;m happy at this point and ready to get on to baseball.&#8221;</p><p>For Mauer, his rehab stint with the Red Wings is simple.</p><p>The 2009 American League MVP is just glad be back, &#8220;going through a regular day&#8221; and &#8220;going through the motions.&#8221; He&#8217;s using this time to do &#8220;everything I need to do&#8221; to get back to the bigs and help out the third-place Twins as soon as possible.</p><p>The fact that he was able to take advantage of Tuesday&#8217;s doubleheader, and get some extra at-bats, was a big plus.</p><p>&#8220;I think the biggest thing for me is to get out there and play nine innings in the field and feel good in doing that,&#8221; Mauer said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a combination of things, but it was mostly the symptoms &#8212; concussion symptoms &#8212; (that were hardest) to get over. This is the next step in that recovery, but I&#8217;m here and ready to go out to go on a baseball field and I&#8217;m excited about that.&#8221;</p><p>While Mauer admitted this concussion hasn&#8217;t been as difficult to come back from as the one he suffered at the end of the 2013 season, he still had to overcome a setback. The 35-year-old was close to returning at the beginning of the month when his concussion symptoms returned during on-field work on May 31.</p><p>In hindsight, Mauer said he probably wouldn&#8217;t have even dove for the foul ball during the game against the Angels if he had the opportunity to do it over again.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s tough. It&#8217;s frustrating because concussions are all different and people respond to them differently,&#8221; Mauer said. &#8220;It&#8217;s one of the more frustrating injuries because you don&#8217;t have a timetable. I think that&#8217;s what&#8217;s frustrating for the player because, you know, a hamstring or ankle, you kind of have a good idea when you&#8217;re back but with a concussion, you really just have to let it calm down and the better you can do that, the sooner you&#8217;ll be back.&#8221;</p><p>Justus Sheffield was originally scheduled to take the mound Wednesday for the RailRiders. But after Sunday&#8217;s rainout, he was pushed back a day and will now pitch on Thursday.</p><p>That means the 22-year-old will miss his opportunity to face Mauer. An opportunity the southpaw was looking forward to.</p><p>&#8220;I was actually a little upset,&#8221; Sheffield said of his start getting pushed back. &#8220;That guy, he&#8217;s one of the best players in the game for a long time &#8212; he has been. Any time you get the opportunity to face a guy like that &#8212; when I played Pawtucket I got to face (Dustin) Pedroia &#8212; that&#8217;s just something you look forward to just because you&#8217;ll never know if you face those guys again.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s also one of those things that you get to see, &#8216;OK, let&#8217;s see how good I really am. Let&#8217;s see what I do against these guys.&#8217; You can see it too. Some guys will get up there and try to blow them back and out-pitch a guy, try and out-smart those guys. It&#8217;s fun. It&#8217;s awesome.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Rehabbing Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer played in both games of Tuesday&#8217;s doubleheader against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The Rochester Red Wings designated hitter was was 0-for-6 with a strikeout. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_AP18152014958034.jpg</photo0><caption0>Rehabbing Minnesota Twins first baseman Joe Mauer played in both games of Tuesday&#8217;s doubleheader against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. The Rochester Red Wings designated hitter was was 0-for-6 with a strikeout. </caption0><photoCredit0>Jim Mone | AP file photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Minnesota Twins 1B Joe Mauer makes stop in Moosic