The Minnesota Twins came from behind with three runs in the eighth inning to beat the Seattle Mariners 6-5 as the two teams finished up a three game series. The Twins snapped their four game losing streak and avoided the three game sweep with the victory. It is now time to go on a winning streak and overtake the White Sox for the division lead!

Jason Kubel had a rbi double to get the scoring starting in the eighth inning and then pitch hitter Brian Buscher added a two run single to finish out the scoring. Delmon Young had a rbi sac fly for the first run of the game in the second inning and Denard Span had a two run ground-rule double in the fourth inning. Good balanced scoring for the Twins as they kept the pressure on the Mariners pitching staff.

Glen Perkins pitched seven innings and allowed four runs as he started for the Twins on the mound. Perkins improved to an awesome 12-3 on the season with the victory. Matt Guerrier, Eddie Guardado, and Joe Nathan all seen action out of the bullpen. Guardado was charged with one run in the eighth inning but Nathan made the one run lead hold up for his 36th save of the season.

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What a terrible way to lose a ballgame as the Minnesota Twins gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and then went onto lose the game in the 11th inning to the Seattle Mariners. When you are in a playoff hunt like the Twins are right now, you can’t have these kind of mistakes that cost you a ballgame. Now the Twins find themselves down a full game to the Chicago White Sox in the division.

Joe Nathan allowed a run in the ninth inning when the bases were loaded and he got a double play off the bat of Jeff Clement. Adrian Beltre scored on the double play and the game then went to extra innings. In the 11th inning, Beltre then ended the game in walk off fashion as he hit a two run home run off of Jesse Crain.

Crain took the loss whle starting pitcher Francisco Liriano got a no decision. Liriano tossed six innings and gave up six hits but only run run. Too bad the bullpen coudln’t hold the lead so he would have been able to get a win.

The only offense the Twins could muster up in the game were rbi singles from Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young. Hopefuly the Twins will bounce back and play better on Tuesday and come away with a victory.

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The Minnesota Twins took two out of three games against the Oakland Athletics during their mid week series. The Twins finished up the series with a 3-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon as they scored single runs in the first, third, and sixth innings off of Dallas Braden.

Mike Redmond led the Twins at the plate as he had rbi singles in the third and sixth innings to finish the game with two rbi. The other rbi for the Twins came off the bat of Justin Morneau who singled in the Twins first run in the first inning.

Francisco Liriano notched his fourth win of the season and is now 4-3. Liriano tossed five innings and gave up five hits and one run while walking three and strikingout five others. Boof Bonser, Jesse Crain, and Joe Nathan all did a good job out of the bullpen. Nathan recorded his 34th save of the season.

Now lets all hope that the White Sox lose today! - Twins Baseball Blog

Well that sure wasn’t the way the Twins wanted to start a three game series with the A’s. The Twins were held scoreless until the eighth inning and lost the game by the score of 3-2. There were plenty of chances for the team to take the lead but they just couldn’t get that one rally going to get three or four hits in a row.

Nate Blackburn gave up all three runs to take the loss and fall to 9-7. Blackburn pitched the first eight innings of the game as he allowed six hits and three runs. He didn’t throw the ball that badly at all, the offense just wasn’t there to pick him up. Jesse Crain and Craig Breslow both pitched in the ninth inning as well.

Both of the Twins runs came in the eighth inning when Joe Mauer hit a rbi triple that scored Denard Span. Mauer would also score on the play when A’s outfielder Eric Patterson made a throwing error. That was all the offense for the Twins which was really suprising because I figured they could score five or six runs against the A’s pitchers.

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Kevin Slowey pitched six strong innings and limited the New York Yankees to only three hits as they Twins went on to beat the Yankees by the score of 4-2. With the victory on Wednesday afternoon, the Twins took two out of three games from the visiting Yankees. Great job by the Twins in the series!

Slowey improved to 9-8 on the season with the win and now has a 3.94 era. The bullpen pitched good as well as they only allowed two more hits to the Yankees over the final three innings of the game. Both of those hits came in the seventh inning as Craig Breslow gave up both hits. Dennys Reyes, Jesse Crain, and Joe Nathan all seen action out of the pen as well. Nathan picked up his 32nd save of the season as he finished off the Yankes in the ninth inning.

The big hit in the game came in the fourth inning when Delmon Young hit a three run home run to get the Twins on the board. After that the Twins scored another run in the sixth inning on a Brian Buscher rbi sac fly. That was all the offense would need to do as the pitching staff was that good on Wednesday.

As of right now the Twins and White Sox are tied for first place in the division. The White Sox will take on the Royals this evening so everyone sit back and hope the Royals can beat up on the Sox.

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And we’re done with the Yankees! It was a pretty bad series and thats putting it nicely, but hey, we didn’t get shut out! Thats one positive to take away from this game. But there wasn’t much else.

Glen Perkins got the start tonight and as with all the other starters, he kept it close until late then self destructed. He gave up 5 ER in 6 IP. Once again it was mental errors that gave the Twins their 4th straight loss. Coupled with the White Sox come from behind victory, the Twins are now 2.5 games out.

We just passed the 100 game mark and if we would have done better with this series, it would be easy to say things were looking up. But I’m sure the Twins can pull off something. Remember the Boston series right before the break? The Twins dropped all 3 to Boston but came back in the Detroit series to take 3/4.

Thats it for me, had to work late so I’m pretty tired. Lets turn this thing around though next series, GO TWINS!

Ugh, we just can’t seem to win in Yankee Stadium or against the Yankees for that matter. In Ron Gardenhire at the helm, the Twins have lost 18 out of 21 games. If the Twins make it to the playoffs, lets hope the Yankees aren’t also in it. In this game it was the same story as last game. One mistake by the Twins and the Yankees jump all over it and make them pay. It just seems to open up the floodgates. It also doesnt hurt that any of their players are capable of hitting the long ball at any point.

This game the floodgates opened in the 6th. Kevin Slowey was putting the Yankees away. Stakes to a 2-1 lead, he gave up a 2 run homer to Bobby Abreau and thats when it all started. After giving up 4ER, he was done for the night. He took the loss since the Twins could only muster a couple runs off Yankee starter Rasner.

A change in the lineup if anyone noticed, was Denard Span leading off while Carlos Gomez batted ninth. Since Gomez is in a mini funk, Gardenhire thought it was best and it did help a bit. Gomez put the Twins on the board with a double and scoring later on, while Span had 2 hits and reached base 3 times. It will probably be the same way until Michael Cuddyer comes back, then the Twins have some decisions to make.

Well thats it for me tonight, after a long day of work and a not so good outing by the Twins, I need a break, at least until tomorrow afternoon when they play again. Lets hope we can salvage a game out of this series, I’ll take whatever we can get. Till then, good night Twins fans!

Ouch, thats all i can say. I know we have bad luck against the Yankees. You can see that since 2002. For some reason they always find ways to win against us. Only thing I can say about this one is at least it wasnt 1-0, those hurt the most.

Nick Blackburn didnt look good at all. He only lasted 1 2/3 giving up 6 R (3 ER) and 7 hits. He gave up a 2 run HR to A-Rod in the first but Twins clawed back to tie it at 2 on some small ball but Blackburn ran into trouble in the 2nd. After loading the bases, Twins went into DP position, a sharp ground ball was hit at Alexi Casilla, he threw it home to Joe Mauer who misplayed it and the inning just took off from there. At one point the Yankees sent 7 straight batters to the plate. By the time the 2nd was over the Yankees had a 6-2 lead and they would never look back. Even after Blackburn left, the pen didnt do well at all. All of the relievers gave up at least 1 ER.  Since 2002, Twins are 3-17 at Yankee Stadium, maybe we’ll have better luck in the new one. One can only hope.

Only Twins that did have a good day were Alexi Casilla and Denard Span. Both had 3 hits apiece, and Span was just a HR short of the cycle!

Thats all from me, we’ll have better luck tomorrow. I would be happy with 1 out of 3 from Yankee Stadium. Another bit of good news is that the White Sox also lost today so Twins still are only .5 games out of first. Have a good night everyone, more from me tomorrow, GO TWINS!

So I’m back after taking the weekend off, busy weekend too, unfortunetely it was for work. But getting back into the thick of things, we’re playing the Yankees! If you’re like me on this one, the only team you hate more are the White Sox, Yankees take a close second and for apparent reasons too. A bit of historic rememberance to this series is it will be the last time the Twins play in Yankee Stadium. Unbeliveable huh? That place has so much historic tales its crazy. The House that Ruth Built. Decades from now, the new Yankee Satdium might be the House that A-Rod built. K, onto some baseball!

Tonight we have righty Nick Blackburn pitching against our old friend Sidney Ponson. Nick has been doing well along with all our young starting staff, probably the best story this season so far. A nice 7-5 record to boot and a great 3.65 ERA. He has been anything if not consistent. Ponson has simply owned the Twins in his careeer, he is 10-2 with a 2.42 ERA vs. them. He didn’t pitch so well when he was with them. Last time he faced us he was in a Rangers uni. They released him due to internal problems with him.

Twins are hoping to get back on the winning track after a dissapointing 1-0 loss to the Rangers yesterday. Scott Baker had a perfect game through 5 1/3 IP but gave up only one bad pitch and that resulted in a loss. Vicente Padilla went against him. If you remember he hit Justin Morneau earlier this season. After yesterday’s game he made it 15 scoreless innings agianst the Twins dating back to the last time he faced us when he shut us out again. But thw Twins did take 2/3 from the highest scoring offense in the AL, and outscored them 20-3.

My impact player last series would have to be Delmon Young. Before yesterday’s game he was 7-9 in the 2 games. He did say he does better in the second half and its showed so far. Lets hope he can keep this up and get us on top of the division. The Twins also gained a game on the White Sox and since they lost yesterday, are only still .5 games back. Now, i know we dont have good luck against the Yankees but the last series at the Dome we didn’t do so bad. We split and that was a lot considering the hearbreaker in the first 2 games. Lets keep it up! GO TWINS!

What a way to start off my first blog! The Twins shut out the Ranger 6-0 to start off the second half and continue their hot streak. Thats now 21 out of the last 28 games that they’ve won. Once again, the story tonight has been the starting rotation. As I mentioned, Glen Perkins got the call tonight and he was virtually untouchable. He pitched 6 strong scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits, 3 BBs, and recorded a strikeout. Better yet, he lowered his overall ERA to less than 4, its now down to 3.84. Three relievers combined to pitch the last 3 innings giving up no hits.

The offense wasn’t that bad either. Delmon Young had a great game, going 4-4 with an RBI and a stolen base. He started the offense in the 4th, getting an infield single to drive home Justin Morneau. Others that did well today, Brian Buscher and Jason Kubel each went 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Alexi Casilla pounded out 3 hits and 1 run scored.

Carlos Gomez continued to struggle at the plate, he went 0-5 today with a K. The Twins let him off a couple games before the All Star brek, hoping he’d break out of his funk. Tonight though he didn’t give them much confidence. I like the guy, don’t get me wrong but just witnessing his swings, one has to wonder if he needs to go back to AAA. Once Michael Cuddyer is healthy again, what will happen? Denard Span has been swinging a hot bat as of late so perhaps there will be some changes. Who knows. I just think that all pitchers have this guy figured out. Heres the sequence: low and away, low and away, low and away and hes gone. He needs to be more selective at the plate and not just swing at anything in, or out of the zone. But hey, we won, and keep pace with the White Sox. They need to start losing!

Thats it for me tonight, hope you enjoyed the recap and what you heard. And hey, feel free to send me some comments on the board. I’d love to know what i can improve on! Good night everyone, GO TWINS!