A couple notes to pass along, courtesy of our good friend Jim Mandelaro, from the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle:

(*) The Twins granted Bobby Kielty his release today before Class AAA Rochester’s season finale. This allows him to sign with another team immediately, if he so desires.

Kielty batted .218 with two home runs and eight RBI in 55 at-bats for the Red Wings. But he did bat .261 with a .400 OBP against lefthanded pitching. If Randy Ruiz hadn’t come up and done so well for the Twins, they might have given Kielty another shot.

(*) Speaking of Ruiz, he won the International League batting title today with a .320 average. He had enough plate appearances to qualify even after coming to the Twins on Aug. 1. Ruiz also is batting .320 for the Twins.

This is his third minor-league batting title. He won the 2005 Class AA Eastern League title after batting .349 for Reading and the 2000 Class A Pioneer League title after batting .381 for Billings.

(*) The White Sox will put their half-game lead on the line tonight at Cleveland, facing Cliff Lee (19-2, 2.43 ERA). Lee can become Cleveland’s first 20-game winner since Gaylord Perry went 21-13 in 1974. Chicago counters with rookie Clayton Richard (2-2, 6.33 ERA).

OAKLAND — The Twins just announced their September minor-league callups: pitchers Bobby Korecky, Philip Humber, Jose Mijares; infielders Matt Tolbert and Matt Macri, outfielder Jason Pridie and catcher Ryan Jorgensen.

All seven are expected to be in uniform Tuesday, when the Twins open a three-game series at Toronto.

Mijares and Tolbert will join the team from Class AA New Britain with the other five coming from Class AAA Rochester.

Tolbert, 26, is actually coming off the disabled list after having surgery in mid-May to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb.

Mijares, 23, is a surprising choice. The hard-throwing lefthander fractured his left elbow and injured his pitching shoulder in a car accident in Venezuela in January. But he rejoined the New Britain staff in early August and has posted a 2.63 ERA in 10 appearances.

Pridie, 24, came to the Twins from Tampa Bay with Delmon Young and Brendan Harris in the trade that sent Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett to the Rays.

Pridie competed with Carlos Gomez and Denard Span for the starting center field job in spring training. After getting sent down, Pridie batted just .142 in May but rebounded to bat .329 after the All-Star break.

Macri, 26, batted .367 in a 14-game stint with the Twins earlier this year and entered Saturday batting .253 for Rochester.

Korecky, 28, posted a 3.48 ERA in nine appearances with the Twins earlier this season and entered Saturday with a 2.84 ERA and 26 saves for Rochester.

Humber, 25, who came from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade, came on strong for Rochester late in the season, going 6-1 with a 2.67 ERA after the All-Star break.

Jorgensen, 29, was another surprising choice. He was batting .251 entering Saturday, but the Twins wanted a third catcher to back up Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond.

ANAHEIM — Nick Punto moves to third base, with Adam Everett at shortstop and Alexi Casilla at second base for Game 2 of this series against the Angels.

The Twins are facing lefthander Joe Saunders. Glen Perkins, who is 8-1 in his past 14 starts, takes the mound for the Twins.

The Twins have announced their Arizona Fall League assignments: Pitchers Jeff Manship, Rob Delaney, Tim Lahey and Anthony Slama, infielder Steve Tolleson and outfielder Dustin Martin.

Class AAA Rochester manager Stan Cliburn will be their skipper on the Phoenix Desert Dogs.

Update (5:55 p.m.): Torii Hunter is the Angels’ DH, with Gary Matthews, Jr., getting a start in center field.

Update (7:55 p.m.): Mike Herman, Twins director of baseball communications, just discovered this interesting tidbit: Barring a change, the Twins are about to face seven consecutive lefthanded pitchers.

You’ll notice that Oakland is going with an all-lefty rotation. Well, starting Monday, when the Twins visit Seattle, they’ll face Ryan Rowland-Smith, Ryan Feierabend, Jarrod Washburn. Then in Oakland, it’ll be Dana Eveland, Dan Meyer, Dallas Braden and Greg Smith.

If it holds up, the Twins will be the first team since the 1991 Mets to face seven consecutive lefties. Two teams have faced six in a row this year — the Giants and Cardinals. That last factoid is courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau.

Update (8:45 p.m.): When told that Pat Neshek’s latest blog entry had indicated the injured reliever likely wouldn’t return this season, Gardy gave a classic response:

“I’m not a blog guy,” he said. “I’ll let the trainers and doctors tell me, rather than the blog guys. Haven’t had an update since a couple days ago. Says he was progressing fine and [throwing from] 75 feet. So that was the last thing I heard.

“You guys believed Lexi [when Casilla said he would need season-ending surgery] so you’re probably going to believe Neshek too.”

Update (8:55 p.m.): The Twins are currently 23-15 against lefthanded starters, though Saunders beat them on April 2.

Update (9:05 p.m.): Scratch that earlier note. The Mariners actually are scheduled to use righthander Miguel Batista on Monday, followed by Rowland-Smith and Feierabend. So that’ll be six lefties in a row for the Twins.

Twins (73-54)

1. Denard Span, RF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Randy Ruiz, DH
6. Delmon Young, LF
7. Nick Punto, 3B
8. Adam Everett, SS
9. Carlos Gomez, CF

Starting pitcher: LH Glen Perkins

Angels (77-49)

1. Chone Figgins, 3B
2. Erick Aybar, SS
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Vladimir Guerrero, RF
5. Torii Hunter, DH
6. Garrett Anderson, LF
7. Howie Kendrick, 2B
8. Gary Matthews Jr., CF
9. Jeff Mathis, C

Starting pitcher: LH Joe Saunders

Angel Stadium. First pitch: 9:05 p.m.

A few tidbits here, with the Twins leading the Yankees 3-1 in the seventh inning:

(*) Twins prospect Brian Duensing pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief in Team USA’s 8-7 loss to South Korea, opening the Olympic baseball competition. Team USA plays the Netherlands tonight at 9:30 p.m. See Duensing’s blog here.

(*) Couple in-game notes on Kevin Slowey: The first-inning run he allowed was his first in 19 starts this season, snapping his Twins record. He also went 94 batters without allowing a walk before Bobby Abreu drew his free pass in the sixth.

(*) Class AAA Rochester righthander Phil Humber is 8-7 after a 1-5 start, Jim Mandelaro notes in today’s Democrat & Chronicle. Humber took a line drive off his calf in the first inning Tuesday and wound up striking out 11 in 7 1/3 innings. Alejandro Machado has a 21-game hitting streak and Jason Pridie has a 19-game hitting streak.

(*) Today’s attendance is 35,187 — the 15th consecutive crowd of 30,000 or more for the Twins, matching the longest such streak in franchise history. (They also did it in 1992.)

(*) The White Sox will send Mark Buehrle (9-10, 3.94 ERA) to the mound tonight, opposite Kansas City’s Luke Hochevar (6-10, 5.54). Javier Vazquez was terrific last night for the White Sox, but their ERA since the All-Star break is 5.44, compared to 3.60 before the break.

CLEVELAND — Not a whole lot more you can say about Tuesday’s 1-0 loss. For the Twins, at least it was a good night for Class AAA Rochester.

Francisco Liriano held Durham to one run on six hits over six innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. He is 2-2 with a 3.94 ERA now, and the rising strikeout total is a good sign.

Brian Buscher also hit a three-run homer in that 14-2 victory. He’s apparently the leading candidate for a promotion when the Twins trim back to 12 pitchers for the Milwaukee series.

The question was whether Buscher’s knee was healthy enough to play the field, and he handled third base without an error in this game.

In Jim Mandelaro’s game story, there is also word that Philip Humber will miss tonight’s start because of a sore elbow.