May 2009 Archives

Anthony Swarzak put together a decent start, allowing 3 runs through 6 innings, but the offense couldn't get much going against Josh Beckett on Thursday. Jason Varitek's 2 solo homers against Swarzak and a close play on a sacrifice fly in the seventh were enough for Boston to win this one.

Beckett struck out the first 4 batters he faced, before Joe Crede hit his 9th home run of the season. Crede had just returned from missing 3 games with a bruised hand. The Twins ended up with just 5 hits and struck out 10 times on the day.

The Twins beat the Boston Red Sox for their 6th win in the last 7 games. The win brought the Twins back to .500 with a 24-24 record, and pulled them ahead of Kansas City in the standings. They still trail the Detroit Tigers by 3.5 games.

Kevin Slowey earned his 7th win of the season. Only Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay have more than 7 wins. Slowey probably hasn't been the best pitcher on the team, but he's been good enough and gotten plenty of run support when he needed it.

The Twins won their first game of the season against Boston. Nick Blackburn provided 7 strong innings, striking out a season high 7 batters while allowing just 2 runs (1 earned).

Blackburn is now 4-2 on the season with a 3.55 ERA. He's gone 7+ innings in 6 of his last 7 starts, making him the Twins' most consistent pitcher right now. Kevin Slowey has also been pretty good, with 3 straight quality starts. He'll pitch tonight against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has struggled this season and missed some time with shoulder issues.

The Twins returned to Minneapolis after their 20-1 blowout of the White Sox and handily swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the first weekend of interleague play. The streak of wins was thanks to a combination of good starting pitching and a pretty dangerous offensive lineup.

Ron Gardenhire moved Joe Mauer to the #2 spot, which makes for a typical middle of the lineup of Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede. Considering Denard Span is a quality leadoff hitter, it's pretty tough to go 1-6 through this lineup.

The Twins snapped their worst losing streak of the season--6 games--on Thursday in spectacular fashion.

The game was quickly put away after they scored 7 runs in the seventh inning, highlighted by Michael Cuddyer's 3-run home run. The Twins continued to pile on the runs as the game went on, eventually ending with a 20-1 victory.

The Twins lost 4 games in New York by a combined 5 runs. A 19 run surplus only earned them 1 win in this game. They lost the series to the White Sox 2 games to 1.

If there were a way to put a positive spin on a 4-game sweep, I'd probably mention that 3 of the 4 games were lost by just 1 run and the other one was lost by 2 runs in walk-off fashion. Considering they're outspent by the Yankees $201 million to $65 million, the Twins put up a better fight than one would logically expect. It's fun to dream about how good just an extra $25 million well spent would make the Twins.

Monday's game seemed finished almost as soon as it got started. Although the Twins put a couple runs up right away in the first, Glen Perkins allowed 6 runs to the Yankees in the bottom of that inning before leaving with just 2 outs. R.A. Dickey did a marvelous job keeping the Yankees bats at bay as the Twins slowly pecked away at that lead. Dickey pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings.

Heading into Friday's series opener at the new Yankee Stadium, the Twins found themselves with a share of the AL Central Division lead as well as a record above .500 for the first time since the infant days of the season.

A few days later the Twins find themselves 3 games behind the division leading Detroit Tigers, after suffering from 3 straight walk-off losses to the Yankees, who have no won 5 straight.

Justin Verlander tallied 13 strikeouts as he cruised through 6 1/3 innings of scoreless ball on Thursday afternoon. After a Brian Buscher single and a Nick Punto walk, the game was handed over to the Detroit bullpen, who proceeded to blow it all in that one inning.

Jason Kubel delivered a double that, if it hadn't bounced over the OF wall, would have tied the game at five. Instead it left Justin Morneau trapped at 3rd base. Joe Crede, who started off the inning as Verlander's 13th strikeout victim, delivered the game winning 2-RBI single.

Joe Crede hasn't had the most spectacular start with the Twins, and is recovering from a string of illness and injury that caused him to miss 6 of the first 10 games of May. Last night though, he got his biggest hit of his Twins career--a walk-off grand slam in the 13th inning. The home run was his second in as many games since sitting the previous 3 games.

A 2-run home run from Jason Kubel in the eighth inning made the extra innings possible after the bullpen failed to hold a sixth inning lead.

The Twins will open a home series against the Detroit Tigers tonight. The Tigers are riding a 3-game win-streak, which has propelled them to the top of the AL Central. The run of wins can be almost entirely attributed to stellar pitching--they shut out Cleveland on Friday and Saturday before allowing just 3 runs to them on Sunday.

The Twins will have to face Justin Verlander, who pitched a Complete Game shutout on Friday, for the last game of the series on Thursday. First, however, they get to face a couple guys who haven't faired as well lately.

The Twins nearly took full advantage of the Los Angeles Angels' sweeping of the Royals this weekend, but a late inning bullpen collapse cost them a sweep of their own.

Nick Blackburn bounced back on Sunday from a horrendous May 5th start by pitching 7 shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners.

Scott Baker's season had been a disaster coming into Friday night's series opener against the Seattle Mariners. He started the first 2 weeks on the DL with shoulder soreness and then gave up 4 or more runs in each of his first four starts, not making it out of the fifth in two of those. On Friday night, he finally had a good start, going 7 full innings while allowing 0 runs on 5 hits and no walks.

Before Wednesday's series opener in Baltimore, the Twins optioned struggling Alexi Casilla to AAA Rochester. Casilla hasn't been able to rebound at the plate since returning from the DL late last year after tearing a tendon in his right thumb. His defensive play has also been spotty, and his costly error in Detroit on Tuesday was probably the last straw.

Matt Tolbert was recalled to replace Casilla on the roster. Tolbert and Brendan Harris are expected to split the time at second base.

Everything began to unravel with 2 outs in the 2nd inning. Nick Blackburn walked the #8 hitter, Gerald Laird, and the Tigers then went on to get 4 hits, with an Alexi Casilla error wedged in between. After 2 innings the Twins already faced a 6 run deficit.

Blackburn stuck around until the 4th inning when he was tagged for 3 more runs and relieved by R.A. Dickey.

The Twins offense never scored a run. In fact, they had just 5 hits and were unable to take advantage of the 5 walks they were given. Their biggest threat came in the seventh when they loaded the bases with 2-outs, but that ended in a Michael Cuddyer feilder's choice.

The Twins snapped their 2-game skid with a convincing win that was broken open with a 5-run seventh inning for the Twins. Edwin Jackson and Francisco Liriano had been dueled to a 1-1 tie in the preceding six innings.

Liriano put together his best start of the season, allowing 2 runs on just 4 hits and 3 walks. More importantly, he struck out a season high 9 batters, which is tied for the most since his dominate stint in 2006. In terms of innings pitched, it was also his most successful effort of the year. After witnessing Scott Baker's sudden collapse on Sunday afternoon, Ron Gardenhire wasted no time pullling Liriano when he ran into trouble in the eighth inning (the pitch count of 103 had a lot to do with it too).

Anticipoinment has to be the official word of the Twins-Royals weekend series. The series brought much anticipation for the return of Joe Mauer, and let me be clear, Mauer had nothing to with the latter half of the portmanteau. In his first at-bat on Friday night, he took 2 pitches for balls before hitting an opposite field solo home run. Mauer also had a double and a walk, and with the help of a 3 RBI night from Justin Morneau the Twins won the first game of the series, and all was right in the world again.

Joe Mauer is now officially on the active roster, which of course was expected today. Juan Morillo, who had a horrible relief outing surrounded by a couple OK appearances since being claimed off waivers a couple weeks ago, was outrighted to AAA Rochester to make room for Mauer.