Kevin Slowey fell to 12-10 on the year as he took the loss on Monday night. Slowey threw six innings but gave up seven hits and all three runs that the Indians scored. Slowey gave up two home runs and that counted for all three of the Indians runs. Two bad pitches and that was the game pretty much.

The one run that Twins did get came in the in the ninth inning when Joe Mauer hit a solo home run. It was just the ninth home run for Mauer on the season. The struck out seven times and left 11 runners on base in the game. Now that is a big letdown if there ever was one in my opinion.

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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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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!

The Twins finally get back into action as they start off the second half of the season. What a season so far. No one believed the Twins would be in the thick of a division race as it stands but here they are, halfway through the season trailing the White Sox by just 1.5 games. This is baseball at its best, its so unpredictable, thats what makes this game great! Onto the matchups, we have RH Kevin Millwood squaring off against our lefty, Glen Perkins. Perkins has been solid this year, with most of each start lowering his ERA down to 4.14. Hes 6-2 on the season, and has been a big reason as why the Twins have been doing so well so far. Him along with all the other younger arms have proven everyone wrong. What considered to be a big question mark to start off the season has actually turned into a plus for the Twins. And it only gets better people. Francisco Liriano has been stellar in his last 3 starts, going 3-0, with a 0.00 ERA in 20 IP. In that stretch hes given up 10 H, 24 Ks and 3 BBs. But I’ll talk more about him in another post. Believe me, I have speculation.

If I could find it, I would post the lineups but since the game is an hour away, doesnt look like I’ll have much. But it will probably be pretty much the same. Interesting to see how they will use Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau now that they’ve been used for the All Star Game, specially Morneau who saw a lot of action.

During each of the reviews I’ll try to point out someone thats been doing well or that doesn’t get a lot of recognition. I’ll start this one off with Craig Breslow. This guy gets NO recognition. Hes been doing very well since the Twins picked him up off waivers from the Indians. Everyone focuses on Dennys Reyes since he was our only lefty reliever but what about Craig? No wins on the season with the Twins yet but look at his stats. 2.18 ERA in the last 10 games, 8/4 Ks/BBs and only 2 runs on 3 hits. The guy does not get credit where its due but you know what, I just gave him it here. Keep it up Craig!

Thats it for the review, now enjoy the game everyone, GO TWINS!

Justin Morneau had the game winning hit and rbi in the 11th inning when he hit a solo home run off of Freddy Dolsi.  Once again Morneau stepped up big time for the team!  Morneau finished the game going 5-5 with one rbi.

In the ninth inning when the Twins tied things up it was Denard Span rbi single and a rbi sac fly by Joe Mauer that scored both runs to tie the game at 6-6.  Carlos Gomez, Alexi Casilla, and Delmon Young also had one rbi each in the game.  Great output by the entire offense.

Matt Guerrier ended up getting the victory and is now 5-4 on the season.  Guerrier tossed the the 10th and 11th innings to pick up the victory.  Starting Twins pitcher Kevin Slowey only lasted 3 2/3 innings as he was pulled after giving up nine hits and six runs.  Slowey was lucky to get the no decision the way he threw the ball.

One plus in the game was how well the bullpen threw the ball.  After Slowey was taken out of the game, the bullpen locked down and did not allow another run in the game.  Craig Breslow, Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes, Joe Nathan, and Guerrier all did a great job on the mound out of the bullpen.

The Twins will look to go up 2-0 in the series on Friday.  Go get em!  Twins Blog 

Five different Twins pitchers gave up atleast two runs each.  Starter Livan Hernandez was tagged for 11 hits and six runs in only 4 1/3 innings.  Boof Bonser then allowed four runs, Craig Breslow gave up two runs, Brian Bass was charged with five runs while Dennys Reyes gave up one run.

The Twins offense did have 14 hits in the game and scored five runs but there was just no way they were going to catch the Red sox.  Justin Morneau had a two run home run while Jason Kubel added a solo home run.  Joe Mauer and Nick Punto both chipped in with rbi singles as well.

The Twins will now go start a four game series against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night.

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Nick Blackburn was outstanding on the mound for the Twins as he pitched seven inning and only gave up three hits to pick up the win.  It was Blackburn’s best outing of the season and he improved his record to 7-4 on the year.

Jesse Crain pitched a scoreless ninth inning and then Boof Bonser pitched a scoreless ninth inning to finish up the game.

Joe Mauer went 2-3 with two rbi in the game to lead the Twins at the plate.  Mauer is now batting .327 with 36 rbi on the year.  Alexi Casilla, Jason Kubel, Delmon Young, Brian Buscher, and Nick Punto all chipped in with one rbi each as well.  It was a very good showing by the Twins offense as almost everyone had a rbi in the game.

The Twins will now be off on Thursday before starting a three game series with the Cleveland Indians on Friday.

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Matt Guerrier took the the loss for the Twins as he gave up three hits and two runs.  Starting pitcher Glen Perkins pitched six innings and gave up seven hits and two runs.  Perkins gave up one home run but struck out seven batters over his six innings of action.  Jesse Crain was charged with one run in the game as well.

Joe Mauer led the Twins with two rbi in the game and now has 34 rbi on the season.  Denard Span had the other rbi for the Twins as he had a rbi double in the sixth inning.0

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Carlos Gomez, Joe Mauer, Brendan Harris, and Craig Monroe all had two rbi in the game.  Harris’s and Monroe’s two rbi’s both came via two run home runs.  Gomez had a two run single while Mauer had a two run double.  Not to be left out, Alexi Casilla also had a rbi single in the game for the Twins.

Glen Perkins threw the first five innings of the game to pick up the victory and is now 4-2 on the season.  Perkins gave up six hits and three runs but did a good job of limiting the Padres to only three runs as he gave up the six hits and walked two batters.

Brian Bass pitched two innings before Craig Breslow and Boof Bonser each pitched a inning to finish up the game.  All three relief pitchers did a wonderful job and did their job exactly like they were supposed too.

Scott Baker will try to get a win for the Twins on Thursday afternoon as the Twins look to sweep the home team Padres.  Twins Blog

Michael Cuddyer and Brian Buscher both had two rbi in the game to lead the Twins at the plate.  Alexi Casilla, Joe Mauer, and Jason Kubel all helped out with one rbi as well.  It was great to see the Twins have such good production as they scored nine runs without hitting one home run in the game.  That is how you manufacture runs!

On the mound, Glen Perkins tossed eight inning to pick up the victory and improve his record to 3-2.  Perkins gave up ten hits but only three runs scored off those ten hits.  Craig Breslow was called on to come in and finish off the Nationals in the ninth inning and that was exactly what he did without any problems.

The Twins will now take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three game series over the weekend.

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