Zero hour.

One-run losses are always frustrating.  1-0 losses are even more frustrating.  1-0 losses at the hands of something called Rubby De La Rosa are more frustrating still.  But it happens.  De La Rosa looks like he might actually be a good pitcher, but even if he's not, it happens.

It happens because it's baseball.  Don Larsen was nobody special before he threw a perfect game in the World Series.  Bobo Hollomon hadn't won a major league game when he threw a no-hitter.  He won two more in his major league career.  Wilson Alvarez didn't retire a batter in his first major league start.  In his second, he threw a no-hitter.  Closer to home, Andrew Albers threw 8.1 scoreless innings in his first major league game and followed that with a complete game shutout in his second major league game.  Those are likely to be his only two major league wins.  This stuff happens.  It's frustrating when it happens to you, but it happens.  It happens because it's baseball.

On the plus side, Kevin Correia pitched well for the second consecutive game, and that's three at least decent outing out of four.  It looks like he's back to being what he was last year--not great, but at least a legitimate major league pitcher.  His ERA has dropped from a peak of 7.33 to 5.29, and since the first of May it's a little over four, which is about as much as we can reasonably expect from him.  If he gets back to being someone we can count on to keep the Twins in the game, that would be quite helpful.

Joe Mauer went 0-for-3 with a walk, dropping his line to .258/.338/.331.  This has gone on long enough now that it seems like there must be some reason for it.  I don't know if he's playing through an injury, or if there's something wrong with his mechanics, or what it is, but there must be something.  He's had some bad luck, but it's hard for me to think you can go from an OPS of .880 to .669 just by bad luck, especially when we're nearly through half the season.  I'm not saying they should bench him or anything (unless he is injured, in which case some time off to heal might be a good thing).  I'm just saying that he really hasn't been very good this year, and the Twins need him to be good.  It would be really helpful if he can get things straightened out in the second half of the season.

At any rate, the Twins have two more games against the Bostons, and our Twin aces Phil Hughes and Kyle Gibson are going in those games.  If that doesn't mean the start of a winning streak, I don't know what does.  In fact, it'll be a ninety-four game winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 126-36!