Aaron Laffey Topic Page

Whenever the Twins got something going offensively on Sunday, a double play was right around the corner. In the 2nd inning Michael Cuddyer drew a walk, which was following up by a Delmon Young inning ending double play. Jose Morales led off the 3rd inning with a single, and that was following by a Nick Punto GIDP.

The worst came in the ninth when the twins had worked to within 2 runs and were facing closer Kerry Wood. Morales again got a leadoff single, and then Brian Buscher walked on 4 pitches. Denard Span then grounded into a no-out double play to kill the rally and the game for the Twins.

The Cleveland Indians entered the weekend series with the 3rd highest scoring offense in baseball. The Twins entered the series having allowed the 5th most runs in baseball. So far through two games, things have gone exactly opposite of what those numbers indicate.

The Twins have held the Indians to just 1 run in each of the last two games while taking advantage of poor pitching from Fausto Carmona and Carl Pavano. Kevin Slowey nearly pitched a complete game shutout, but ran into trouble in the ninth on Saturday and had to be bailed out by Luis Ayala. Nick Blackburn turned in his best start of the season, allowing just a run in 7 innings.

The Twins enter the series at Cleveland with a 7-9 record, which puts them just 1.5 games behind Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City for the division lead. Cleveland is just a game behind the Twins. The Twins are fortunate to have the record they have, considering they've played much worse than that in terms of runs scored (66) vs. runs allowed (97).

The pitching matchups for the weekend:

Friday: Nick Blackburn, RHP (0-1, 5.71) vs. __Fausto Carmona, RPH (1-2, 7.88) Saturday: Kevin Slowey, RHP (2-0, 5.89) vs. Carl Pavano, RHP (0-2, 9.69) Sunday: Glen Perkins, LHP (1-1, 1.50) vs. Aaron Laffey, LHP (1-0, 2.19)