Tag Archives: Nick Blackburn

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 42: Twins at A’s

176 Comments

A day game? Well, I'm at work and didn't realize that last night would have been the time to do this. Whoops.

Tyson Ross vs. Nick Blackburn. Blackburn has been saving his spot in the rotation over the past few starts, and Ross has been a revelation in what should still qualify as his rookie year, thus far going ERA 2.50/FIP 3.03 /xFIP 3.69. He does have an unsustainably low HR/FB rate, and if anyone's going to fix that, it's this Twins lineup!!11!11

Seriously, though, let's add to this little winning streak.

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 37: Blue Jays at Twins

327 Comments

"It's been tough to watch lately. Really tough."

Just about every game log, regardless of writer, has started with some permutation of that phrase. It's been horrifically true, though. When the pitching's good, the offense declines to score any runs. When the offense does click and puts up a gargantuan run total (maybe something like five runs or so), the pitching blows it.

The injuries have played a factor, obviously, but Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, and Jim Thome are not going to turn this team into a division winner. In fact, I'm becoming increasingly pessimistic about our chances of breaking even (we'd have to play 69-57 from here on out to make it to .500. That's .547 from now on, and I don't know if we've seen more than a couple of games all year where they looked like they could play that way for any length of time.)

So, that's that. The team needs to turn around, and they can't wait for the star catcher to come back. They can't wait for the MVP first baseman to get his head right. They can't wait for the "mvp" (lower case) to Just. Stop. Sucking. It needs to happen right now. It probably won't happen (Sean's historical searchings didn't exactly provide a silver lining), but come on... giving up before June is for Pirates fans, right?

We've got Blackburn on the mound today, they've got Jo-Jo Reyes. Both seem to be fairly allergic to striking people out (though Blackburn's 3.5 k/9 is just absurd*), so I guess we can expect lots of hits today. That'll be a nice change of pace, at least.

Blackburn's our "big game pitcher" right? Well, we need this one. Go get 'em, Blackie.

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 33: Twins at Sawks

444 Comments

So, about that winning streak. It was nice, wasn't it? The last two games, not so much.

Tonight, Our Boys make an appearance on Monday Night Baseball on the 4ltr. I'm sure we are all excited to have the nation see our AAAA (AAA?) squad take the field. Will Cuddyer play shortstop?? Go team!

Game time: 6:10 p.m. Central.
Pitching matchup:
Nick Blackburn (4.41 ERA, 5.53 FIP, 4.47 xFIP, 6.18 tRA, 15:13 K:BB, 6 HR, 34 2/3 innings)
Josh Beckett (2.35 ERA, 3.14 FIP, 3.26 xFIP, 3.07 tRA, 35:12 K:BB, 3 HR, 38 1/3 innings)

On paper, this one does not look good. We get Blackie instead of F-Bomb, who has been suffering from "Flu-like symptoms." Mebbe next year, the team can set up a flu shot clinic, please?

Blackburn has been awful in three of his six starts so far, having given up five runs each on April 15 and April 20, then seven in 3 1/3 horrible innings at home on April 28. But there are glimmers of hope, as his other three starts have been quite good, including a solid 6 2/3 inning outing to beat the Bitch Sox on May 4. When things are going well, Blackburn is a league-average pitcher who doesn't miss many bats, but who generates a lot of ground balls. In his three good outings, he induced 35 ground balls against only 17 fly balls and 9 line drives. In his three bad outings -- 27:19:16.

For his part, Beckett has been good-not-great so far. I see some hope in that he gave up 7 fly balls and 3 walks in a rain-abbreviated 4 1/3 innings against LAAAAAA on May 4th in his last start, and got hit hard by the Orioles (4 runs on 2 HR, 10 fly balls and 5 LDs in 6 innings) the start before that.

Fenway Bandbox isn't the sort of place you want to be giving up a lot of fly balls in, so let's hope the Good Blackie shows his beard tonight, and Beckett pipes a few to the Dude and Mountie.

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game Logs: Game 29 Minnesota @ Chicago

152 Comments

What a difference a day makes.

TWINS
1. Denard Span, CF
2. Matt Tolbert, SS
3. Justin Morneau, 1B
4. Jason Kubel, RF
5. Michael Cuddyer, DH
6. Rene Tosoni, LF
7. Danny Valencia, 3B
8. Drew Butera, C
9. Alexi Casilla, 2B

Pitcher: Blackburn

WHITE SUX
1. Juan Pierre, LF
2. Alexei Ramirez, SS
3. Adam Dunn, DH
4. Paul Konerko, 1B
5. Carlos Quentin, RF
6. A.J. Pierzynski, C
7. Alex Rios, CF
8. Mark Teahen, 3B
9. Omar Vizquel, 2B

Pitcher: Danks

Go Twins!

2011 Twins Game Logs

2011 Game 18: twins at ORIOLES

218 Comments

image

According to mlb.com Blac_burn "is 1-2 with a 5.79 ERA in four career appearances against the Orioles."  Change the ERA to 3.06 and you have pitching joe's numbers for this season. I refuse to look up any more stats for Nick, as with the way this week has gone ignorance is bliss.

But I do think he's been pitching well this season. Hail Blackbeard the Pirate Ace who loves hitting the plank.
Continue reading 2011 Game 18: twins at ORIOLES →