Twins' batting order shuffling is one of Rocco Baldelli's signature moves

Fifteen years ago, Justin Morneau found his name listed in the starting lineup as the Twins' cleanup hitter for all 162 games of the 2008 season. Wait, make that all 163 — the Twins played a tiebreaker in Chicago two days after the season ended, and of course Morneau was in his usual spot.

That sort of lineup consistency — heck, the notion of a "cleanup hitter" — is a relic of the past.

Jordan Luplow, a journeyman outfielder playing for his sixth team in a seven-year MLB career, batted fourth in the Twins' starting lineup Tuesday, and became a footnote in Minnesota history by doing so. Luplow, who joined the team Friday after being claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays, is the 14th Twins player to be chosen to bat fourth by manager Rocco Baldelli, the most in franchise history.

Not that that's anything new — Tuesday's game was the Twins' 115th of the season, and the lineup was the 110th different one Baldelli has used this season. In his three previous full seasons, the manager has never used fewer than 145 distinct lineups.

"We sort of start from scratch every day," Baldelli said last week. "You gather all the information you can, and figure out how things might go."

Baldelli and his coaches don't hesitate to change things, either, like the decision last week to drop Carlos Correa out of the leadoff spot, where he batted throughout July.

"We go through the lineup every night. Rocco, he always works about 48 hours in advance — sometimes more, sometimes less — looking at the pitching matchups," bench coach Jayce Tingler said. "He has things lined up, and then at the end of the night, we'll sit down and he'll grab the hitting [coaches] and then ultimately, Rock will make the final call."

The lineups don't come from the front office?

"That's probably Twitter rumors, stuff like that," Tingler said. "I've worked in three organizations — in all three that [rumor] was flying around. I'm guessing it flies around every organization. I would say that is 100 percent not true. It's just speculation and rumor, and there's zero truth to it."

The Twins, already missing first baseman Alex Kirilloff because of a shoulder injury, may have lost another on Tuesday.

In the third inning, Donovan Solano hit a sharp line drive to left-center field and rounded first base as if he was headed to second. But left fielder Akil Baddoo cut the ball off and fired it to the infield.

Solano quickly changed directions and lunged back into first base. But he did so awkwardly, twisting his ankle and knee as he did so.

The first baseman jogged around a bit, but eventually left the game for pinch runner Joey Gallo, who took over the position.

"Donovan is going to get an MRI. He's going to get it on the knee and the ankle, but the immediate thought is he does have some type of knee sprain," Baldelli told reporters in Detroit after the game. "We're hoping it's more of a day-to-day thing than a long-term thing, but we have to see what the results say before we know anything for sure."

*Royce Lewis began a rehab assignment Tuesday night with the Class AAA Saints, playing third base. The infielder has missed nearly six weeks because of an oblique strain.

*The Saints used two five-run innings to crush Louisville 14-4 at CHS Field. Lewis, Trevor Larnach, Yunior Severino and Chris Williams all homered for the Saints.

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.