Nick Blackburn Topic Page

The Twins surrendered a 10 run lead largely thanks to a poor start by Nick Blackburn and an even worse showcase by Brian Duensing, Bobby Keppel and Jose Mijares. This has to be the lowest point of the season so far.

On Friday night Francisco Liriano bounced back with a pretty good start against Seattle. He held them to 1 run through 6 innings. He still threw a lot of pitches and walked 4 batters, but he managed to avoid the disastrous innings that had plagued him recently.

The game headed into extra innings and after the Mariners accurately predicted Ron Gardenhire's squeeze attempt and pitched out trapping Joe Mauer between 3rd and home, Matt Tolbert managed to hit a fly ball to deep left field. The ball was misplayed by Wladimir Balentien for an error and it allowed the Twins to win 2-1.

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.

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 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.

Three low scoring affairs ended in a series victory for the Twins against Central division rival Cleveland Indians. On Friday night the Twins were shut out while Francisco Liriano struggled again in his second start of the season. Liriano allowed "only" 3 runs through 5 complete innings, but it could've been worse. He gave up 4 hits, walked 5 and struck out just 3. Rick Anderson and Ron Gardenhire have raved about his last two bullpen sessions, but when he goes out and struggles to find his location for 5 innings, it's hard to fully believe what they see.

I missed the day game and I'm in the process of watching the re-play on FSN. I'm currently in the process of watching the seventh inning, the one inning that doomed the Twins in this game. The highlight was a Joe Crede grand slam that gave the White Sox their first lead of the game.

In his first major league start, Nick Blackburn gave the Twins a pretty good effort. Unfortunately, 0 run support never results in a win. Blackburn allowed just 1 run on 5 hits through 7 innings. He matched the zeros of Angels pitcher Joe Saunders until the seventh inning when a 2-out wild pitch allowed Howie Kendrick to score from third.

Glen Perkins is next on the list for 2008 projections. First, the stats:

Continuing with the 2008 projections series, we move onto Nick Blackburn. Nick joins Kevin Slowey and Philip Humber as the three players I think have a legitimate shot at rounding out the Twins' rotation.