Joe Mauer had only one full day away from the ballpark during the all-star break, and he knew just what he wanted to do with it — sleep. The private plane he chartered from Anaheim to Minnesota after Tuesday night’s All-Star Game landed about 4 a.m. Wednesday, and when Mauer’s head finally hit the pillow about an hour later, the catcher didn’t stir until about 3 that afternoon, just in time for a little fishing (the other thing he wanted to do on his day off).

“I just try to wake up when I wake up,” Mauer said. “I don’t like alarm clocks.”

The uninterrupted sleep and four-day stretch of so little time in catcher’s gear seemed to make a difference in Mauer’s young second half.

In the first two games of the Twins’ four-game series against the Chicago White Sox, Mauer is 5 for 10 with five runs batted in and two doubles, raising his batting average from .293 to .300, and Thursday marked his first three-RBI game since Aug. 18, 2009.

Rest of the article at the PioneerPress