Date: 7/3/10 and 7/4/10

Opponent: Tampa Bay Rays

Home/Away: Home

Starting Pitcher: Liriano and Blackburn

Final Score: L 8-6 and L 7-4

Record: 44-38

Recap: Hmmm, I feel like that weekend could have gone a bit better. Make that a lot better. It's frustrating when we could have easily won the series 3 to 1 and end up losing 1 to 3. There were definitely a lot of what-ifs in both games. Oh well. Yes, we're struggling now, but it's not the end of the world. We're still in 1st place in a very winnable division (of course I may be singing a different tune if we lose the division by 1 game in October). Nonetheless we really can't keep playing this poorly and expect to win. We need consistent starting pitching. I'm not real concerned about our offense, but the starting pitching is a definite weakness.

Saturday's game was a totally amazing game...for the first 7 innings. It started off with parachuters, which was awesome. Really awesome. It was so cool to watch them jump out of the plane and slowly make their way down. Of course the first guy to get to the field almost landed in the limestone overlook before crashing into the outfield wall. Fortunately the rest of the landings were less eventful. The plane also flew extremely low right over the stadium.

Then we got a nice show of power in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. Thome homered in the 2nd inning down the left field line. It was barely fair, but it was his 573rd home run, tying him for 10th on the all-time list with Harmon Killebrew. Thome got a standing ovation and came out of the dugout for a curtain call. In the next inning, it was Morneau's turn to shine. He hit a 2-run homer into the flower beds in right-center field to give the Twins and 3 to 1 lead. Thome again batted in the 4th and drove another ball deep, this time to center to give him his 574th homer and sole possession of 10th place on the list. Cue another standing ovation and curtain call, as well as a pre-taped message from Killebrew himself congratulating Thome. It was a historic game and I'm really excited that I got to witness it. Unfortunately the ending drew attention away from Thome's accomplishment.

Liriano was having a fantastic game. He had 10 strikeouts, 4 hits and only 1 earned run in 7 innings. It could have easily been 7 shutout innings as the only run scored when Liriano couldn't quite make a play on an infield ground ball. He perhaps wasn't as economical with his pitches, but he was still dominating the Rays and only had thrown 103 pitches through the 7th. Which is why I'm a bit irritated that he was taken out of the game at that point. Yes, he had thrown a good number of pitches, but given the usage of the bullpen an his dominance to that point, I think he should have been allowed to start the 8th. I wondered why he was pulled from the game as Burnett entered the game in the 8th, and I really wondered why after the end of the 8th.

Cuddyer was moved to right for Kubel and Punto was the replacement at 3rd to start the inning. So naturally the late-inning defensive replacement moves did not work out. Jason Bartlett hit a ball to right that Cuddyer had bounce out of his glove (think of how different the game would have been if that ball was caught...). After that double, Burnett gave up a single, and Gardenhire yanked him in favor of Mijares. Mijares promptly gave up a double to Carl Crawford: Twins 4, Rays 2. We still had no outs. In came Guerrier. His first 3 hits were absolutely creamed. The first was hit for a single to score 1, then a double on the second pitch scored another. The third pitch was a screaming foul ball. At this point the game was tied, and we still had no outs. Naturally Guerrier walked the bases loaded. Honestly, I had no problem bringing in Guerrier. But given that anything he threw over the plate was being smoked and he couldn't retire the first 3 batters he faced, I think it maybe would have been good to take him out of the game. Unfortunately he stayed in, got 2 outs, and then gave up a grand slam to .158 hitter Matt Joyce (okay, it was only in 19 at bats, but still). As we watched the deep fly ball to center, the guy next to me kept muttering, "Span can get it. He'll get it." I think he was trying to comfort himself, but it clearly didn't work. The ball just snuck over the wall. It brought to a close the bullpen collapse. They combined to give up a 7 runs in 1 inning. That's quite epically awful. I'm sort of impressed.

We did have a late rally, but it wasn't enough after that brutal inning. Thome ended up 3 for 4 in the game with 2 homers and a double. Mauer also had 3 hits. All in all we had 13 hits and 8 extra-base hits. So kudos to the offense, but the bullpen really screwed us over in that game.

Sunday was less heartbreaking but still painful. Blackburn was actually pitching pretty well for the first 6 innings. He gave up a run in the 1st and a solo homer in the 3rd, but he was keeping the Rays in check. The offense wasn't doing a whole lot. We got a run in the 1st on a Mauer single and Morneau double, but otherwise nothing. 

Then the 7th inning brought the Twins down. Blackburn's pitch count was fairly low, but I think given his struggles caution would have been better. 6 innings with 2 earned runs would have been great. However, I understand keeping him in the game since he was pitching well and hadn't thrown too many pitches. But after the first 2 batters reached on singles, I think it may have been a good time to pull him. And after he threw the ball wildly past 1st on a bunt which resulted in a run scoring and the runners advancing to 2nd and 3rd, I really would have pulled him. He did get finally get the first out next. But what really killed me was intentionally walking Crawford to get to Longoria, and then letting Blackburn pitch to him. Um, what? I was positive, absolutely positive, that a relief pitcher was being brought in to face Longoria. It still just blows my mind that Blackburn was left in the game. Longoria singled up the middle to score 2 more. Blackburn was finally pulled, but it was far too late. Duensing got the second out of the inning, then gave up a hit to score 2 more runs before finally finishing off the inning. It was another killer big inning, this time for 5 runs. 3 of them were unearned.

Again we made rallied, but it was not enough. Morneau, Thome and Young had 2 hits apiece in the game. It was just a sad finish to a sad series. Now we need to shake it off and move forward. Monday's off, and then we're off to Toronto. Congratulations to Mauer and Morneau on their All-Star selections, and best of luck to Skinny Delmon, who has a chance to make the roster through fan voting.

Best Moment: On Saturday, Thome's 573rd and 574th homers. And the Navy Seal parachuters. On Sunday, getting a Minnie and Paul bobblehead (I really can't think of much else that was good).

Most Questionable Moment: On Saturday, pulling Liriano after the 7th inning. On Sunday, not pulling Blackburn soon enough.

Worst Moment: On Saturday, the 7-run top of the 8th. Then Blackburn's throwing error leading to 3 unearned runs on Sunday.

Quotations of the Day:

• "Thome did fantastic, he had a great day. It was a fun day to watch him swing. Like I said, it was unfortunate we lost the ballgame, which kind of puts a damper on things, but a great day for him." - Ron Gardenhire
• "No matter who I went to, it seemed to be the wrong move today, and I'll take that one on myself." - Ron Gardenhire, on not being able to make the right bullpen move in Saturday's game.
• "A big inning hurt us again today." - Ron Gardenhire, on Sunday.
• "I didn't think it was a pop-up; I just didn't think it was a home run. We haven't seen many balls go out to center, but it went out, so what can you say?" - Matt Guerrier, referring to Matt Joyce's grand slam.

Suck-Ass Performance of the Game: Alex Burnett (0.0 innings pitched, 2 hits, 2 earned runs), Jose Mijares (1 hit, 1 earned run) and Matt Guerrier (1.0 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 home run, 4 earned runs, 1 blown save, 1 loss) on Saturday. Nick Blackburn (6.1 innings pitched, 9 hits, 2 walks, 1 home run, 1 wild pitch, 7 runs, 4 earned runs, 1 loss) on Sunday.