Even Mauer-less, the Twins are not powerless

Minnesota pulls back to .500 even without the help of the leading All-Star vote-getter at catcher in the American League who was held out of the lineup due to the flu bug.  Ron Gardenhire realized he had to sit catcher Joe Mauer sooner or later and the catcher’s health condition hastened the manager’s decision.  Thankfully, he did so on a day that starter Nick Blackburn was throwing nothing but magic bullets, who went the entire distance, the first of his career, while scattering six hits and allowing just one run.

 

Minnesota struck first in the opening inning off of the Pittsburgh left-hander Zack Duke.  Brendan Harris, who was 3-for-4 on the night with a run scored, trotted home on an RBI-double to left field by Justin Morneau.  Harris is now batting .329 (26-for-79) since having taken over shortstop from Nick Punto in late May and has failed to reach base in only one of those 20 games.  Punto, who was 2-for-3 with a run scored, would leg out an infield single on a grounder to Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson to start the third inning and would eventually score on Morneau’s doubleplay ball.  Michael Cuddyer would tack on another run by way of a solo blast in the sixth then a triple in the eighth but would be thrown out at the plate by Andy LaRoche on Joe Crede’s fielder’s choice.  The Twins would add two more on Brian Buscher’s eighth inning, two-run home run off of reliever Jesse Chavez, who ended an eleven plate appearance hitless skid with the blast over the baggy. 

 

For the Pirates, Eric Hinske would double in the top of the ninth with two outs and score on Adam LaRoche’s subsequent base hit, closing the gap to 5-1.  Blackburn would retire Andy LaRoche on a grounder to second to end the game to raise his record to 6-2 and lowers his ERA to 3.09 (good enough for ninth best in the AL) with his solid performance.  Without a doubt, Blackburn has been one of the team’s frontline starters despite earning his first win since his May 31^st start at Tampa Bay.  In his previous eight starts, Blackburn has maintained an ERA of 1.85 but the Twins have gone just 4-4 in those contests. 

 

The Twins will welcome the Houston Astros to town on Friday.  Houston will send will send the 37-year-old Brian Moehler (3-4, 6.66 ERA) to the mound to face Scott Baker (4-6, 5.30).  Baker has had a great month of June, limiting opponents to a .192 average against while striking out 23 in 22 innings of work and going 2-0 with a 2.86 ERA.

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