Bleh.

Remember how, last year, I would write that Ricky Nolasco had pitched a bunch of "almost good" games?  That was not the problem yesterday.  Nolasco pitched two good innings, then the roof fell in.  He gave up three in the third and four in the fourth, and the game was pretty much over.  Gladden kept harping on the leadoff walks in the third and fourth, and certainly that's not what you want, but my thought is that the triple, two doubles, and three singles Nolasco gave up didn't particularly help, either.  He didn't get a lot of help from his defense, but you can't really blame his outing on the defense.

The relievers also didn't cover themselves in glory, with Tim Stauffer giving up two runs in 1.2 innings, Aaron Thompson giving up one in two innings, and Blaine Boyer giving up one in one inning.  J. R. Graham retired the only batter he faced, which pretty much made him the Twins' player of the game.

The batters were no better, managing only four hits.  They did get their first extra-base hit of the season, a double by Jordan Schafer.  As you know, they have yet to actually score a run, which means there's nowhere to go but up.  Besides, the worse the Twins do early in the season, the sooner they're likely to bring up some of the young players.  And, after all, it's guys like Buxton, Sano, Rosario, and Berrios who we really want to see, anyway.  Even if they don't immediately make the Twins successful, they'll at least make them more interesting.

Meanwhile, the Twins will try again today.  I predict that they will score at least one run today, maybe even more.  Kyle Gibson takes the mound for the Twins, trying to build on his solid rookie campaign.  The Tigers counter with Shane Greene, who had a pretty solid rookie campaign himself.  The way I see it, the Tigers should be worn out from running around the bases all day yesterday, so they'll be easy pickings.  Today we start our winning streak!  We'll just have to settle for 160-2!