You Complete Me

It’s something I wouldn’t say to my girlfriend, but I’ll say it to Nick Blackburn*. Blackie pitched the first complete game effort for the Twins today, giving up 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 2 hitters. His sinker was really working today, as he got 17 groundouts and just 8 flyouts, in addition to the two strikeouts, all on 107 pitches, 70 for strikes. He had 49 pitches after the 4th inning, so I was optimistic that the Twins could squeeze 8 innings out of him. As it was, the bullpen got a day off, leaving them fresh for this weekend’s series against Houston. Joe Nathan did warm up a bit in the 8th and 9th, but seeing as he hadn’t thrown since Sunday, it was probably good for him to get out and stretch his arm a bit.

The Twins put out a fairly weak lineup, but managed to put some runs on the board, led by Brendan Harris’s 3 hit day, and homers by both Brian Buscher and Michael Cuddyer. Fun fact: Michael Cuddyer’s home runs have the 2nd highest average distance in the AL. He is trailing only Miguel Cabrera.

Harris has rebounded from a pretty slow start to post a .281/.333/.384 line for a .320 wOBA. As bad as he is at shortstop, he’s finally hitting well for a middle infielder.

*Yay! I get to use the “horrible jokes” tag for the first time!