The Rays come in for a Visit

[catman]

Monday, its Nieman v. Baker at 7.
Tuesday, Shields v. Liriano at 7.
Wednesday, Kazmir v. Blackburn at 7.
Questions in this series are about the pitching, IMO. Can Baker and Liriano get it together? Can Blackburn keep pitching the way he did against Cleveland?

[henks]

They have the most futile offense in the AL, Twins need a strong showing from Baker and Liriano here.

[henks]

And henks eats his words.

Twins lose 7-1. Baker has an alright outing, going 6, striking out 7 and giving up 4 runs. The Twins just could get that 2 out hit when they needed it.

[DirtyKash]

Ben ****ing Zobrist?!?! Are you kidding me?

[henks]

He was sitting on a first pitch fastball, and that's what he got.

[henks]

What a finish!!

Nathan blows his first save of the year, but picks up the W in the process. Twins load the bases in the 9th, and Morneau grounds into a GW RBI fielder's choice by beating out the relay for the double play.

[catman]

I'm sorry I missed the game. I was at work. It appears that Morneau's hustle won the game for the Twins tonight. Good to see he's playing this way.
The team has some interesting decisions to make here. Morales is one of the hottest hitters on the team right now and with Mauer coming back, someone has to be sent down. He makes the most sense.

[henks]

Dick and Bert have mentioned (after Crain gets back) that the Twins go with 11 pitchers, keeping Morales, giving more opportunities for bench players to get some much needed AB's.

[catman]

That makes sense if, and only if, Baker pitches well. The team cannot afford to burn their bullpen out.
From an offensive standpoint, it makes perfect sense, however. The team can play Mauer 3 or 4 games a week for a while and have Redmond pick 1 up and Morales get the others. Mauer could DH once in a while and the team would still have a backup catcher on their roster. They had 3 catchers a few years ago when Mauer was rehabbing his knee, so this is not unprecidented.
To get back to the Twins/Rays matchup, I hope Blackburn is on tomorrow night. Kazmir is a pretty tough pitcher to beat.

[henks]

He had a great outing last time he pitched, so hopefully he can continue tomorrow.

[catman]

First inning, Blackburn gets out with 3 groundouts and a bloop single.
Kazmir, on the other hand, has not been quite as fortunate. 2 wild pitches and a couple of outstanding baserunning plays by Kubel -- advancing from 1st to 2nd on a shallow fly to left (Morneau was on 3rd and drew the throw home) and on a wild pitch 3rd strike to Delmon Young (he scored from 3rd on a good slide).
4-0 Twins after an inning. Maybe this will allow Blackburn to relax a bit.

[catman]

Twins seem to be opening the game up, a bit with 3 more in the 4th. Span doubles, Harris singled, Morneau missed a homer to right by about 2 feet, settling for a double, Kubel gets on on an error, Morneau scored on the 2nd error on the play, a couple of outs, Crede walked. Young at bat and will likely be Kazmir's last hitter regardless of the outcome of the AB.
8-1 Twins. If this score holds, Morillo should get an inning tonight.

[catman]

Blackburn responds with a 5 pitch, 1, 2, 3 inning.

[catman]

Is it just me or does Delmon Young look like he's on skates when he goes after a high flyball?

[catman]

Here's one for everyone. Akinori Iwamura, the Rays' 2B, records an unassisted putout at 1st.