Carlos Pena Topic Page

Joe Mauer didn't embarrass himself Sunday night in the home run derby, but he didn't have enough to advance into the 2nd round. He ended up bopping 5 homers in the first round, which landed him in a swing-off with Carlos Pena and Albert Pujols to advance to the 2nd round. Pujols advanced, but Mauer proved he can keep up with the more notable long ball hitters in baseball.

Nick Blackburn won his 3rd consecutive game and put an end to the Twins' 3-game losing streak on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Blackburn allowed solo home runs to Carlos Pena and Matt Joyce, and he was able to work out of a bases-loaded jam in the 5th inning. 4 of Blackburn's 5 wins this year have come following a Twins loss, including his past 3 wins.

His opponent, Matt Garza, seemed to be pitching even better. By the 6th inning, a Brendan Harris solo home run was the only costly mistake he had made. In the 6th inning Denard Span reached on a bunt single and was later driven in by Justin Morneau. In the 7th inning the Twins gave Blackburn the lead when Carlos Gomez blooped a single into shallow right to score Brian Buscher.

This was a game I only saw bits and pieces of, and I missed the 9th and 10th innings, so I'll definitely have to go back and watch the archived game from MLB.tv.

The Devil Rays completely gave this game to the Twins with an inning of the worst defense I may have ever seen at the major league level. After the Twins produced a couple runs in the first, they piled it on in the second with four more. Here's how it went:

The fact that the Twins won Thursday afternoon's game against the Kansas City Royals doesn't make me feel much better about the way the Twins' played. All-around, they were terrible, and against any other team they should have been crushed. However after 11 innings one team was finally able to put a single run on the board and that just so happened to be the Twins.

In 2005 Johan Santana started off the season with 3 straight victories. He was poised to do it again, but one bad inning and the lack of offensive support sent the Twins and Johan to a loss against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Twins could muster only 2 runs against the tough lefty, Scott Kazmir.

Thursday night's game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was a low scoring affair that didn't feature many highlights until the ninth inning. Carlos Silva looked like his old self again. He gave up a lot of hits, but they were scattered and he left a lot of runners on base. He nearly gave up a homerun in the third inning, but it was caught by Jason Kubel right against the wall. Other than that he got a good mix of ground balls and managed to go 6 2/3 innings without allowing a run.