Mariner's-Twins: Blackburn's Pitching Gem Blown by Bullpen

Today the Twins went for a sweep, with poor Seattle on a 6-game losing streak. Minnesota has just had two games with bountiful power and good-to-great pitching. All they needed was one more dose of that to lift themselves back up to the .500 perch.

Nick Blackburn started for the Twins. In his last start, against the Tigers on Tuesday, Blackburn had an especially woeful game. None of his problems could be chalked up to luck. He simply wasn’t able to throw strikes, and his fastball was not his friend.

Today Blackburn was fully back in form. He grew bonus beard stubble, too—for a baseball player, he appears to be closing in on the sensitive indie singer-songwriter look. Nevertheless, he scattered five hits through seven serene innings and struck out six, matching his career best. He built a nice shutout to hand off to the bullpen.

Meanwhile, Twins hitters seem to have misplaced that How-To-Clobber-A-Baseball tipsheet they consulted on Friday and Saturday. They kept giving Mariners starter Erik Bedard plenty to worry about by drawing walks, laying down bunts, and hitting the odd single, but Bedard let them inch no further than third base until the third inning.

During that third inning, for the third consecutive time, the Twins led off with a walk. This time, Justin Morneau was able to double in Joe Maurer for a glorious 1-0 lead. No rally, though—this was going to be scratch and peck baseball.

In the fifth, it was Morneau who collected a walk, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Michael Cuddyer singled him home, giving the Twins a sturdier 2-0 lead to defend.

Blackburn certainly pitched well enough to deserve a win. In the eighth, Jose Mijares came in for another edition of Dynamo Setup Man, a role he usually fills well. Still, please recall his last appearance, against Baltimore, in which he gave up the go-ahead run and left the Twins with a loss.

On this particular afternoon, he got Ichiro Suzuki to ground out and then we took a ride on the mystery train, for Mijares did the two very things he never (make that rarely) does: he issued a four-pitch walk and gave up a home run. The math is pretty simple, really—the game was tied up.

Fans can, by digging deep, feel good about about the home run. It was Ken Griffey Jr's 614th career home run, on his last visit to the Metrodome. It turns out it’s been his personal Homerdome all this time, as he has the most round-trippers of any visiting player, even after spending all those seasons in the National League.

He hit this one deep and high to right, bouncing off of Subway’s “Hit it Here $25,000” banner. However, the Twins' announcers set the record straight. Subway only pays $25,000 for a Twins hitter to hit it, and the money would go to a fan. See, there’s fine print even on stadium signage.

The Twins still had a tie game on their hands, but Blackburn lost his win, and Mijares was yanked for Jesse Crain, who pitched a clean eighth inning in Friday’s win. But Crain didn't fare as well in this game.

The bases didn't stay empty for long. Adrian Beltre singled, then Russell Branyan followed and we had men on first and third with one out. Crain didn’t wait around for the next single, he simply threw a wild pitch, allowing Beltre score the go-ahead run. Wladimir Balentien hit a deep double to put the Mariners ahead 4-2.

The Twins bullpen let a win leak away again. The hitters had little to show for in their half of the eighth, and the Mariners went for a truly soul-crushing homer by micro-hitter Jose Lopez in the top of the ninth, notched against Craig Breslow. Now we had a three-run mountain to climb.

In the bottom of the ninth, we made it interesting against Mariners closer Brandon Morrow. Morrow had that memorable meltdown in the first series against the Twins in which he walked three batters and lost the game. The M's brought him back for his next opportunity, however, and he was solid in a second chance against the Twins in April.

Today, he was a little of both. He gave up an infield single to Nick Punto leading off. Punto stole second while Denard Span stayed ever-patient in the count, though he eventually grounded out.

Lonely Nicky Punto stood on second while Jason Kubel converted his pinch hit opportunity into a strike out. Now we were down to a final out at-bat. Joe Mauer used his beautifully. With the count 1-2, he poked a single straight through to center and scored Punto. The stolen base and Maurer’s batting eye inched us closer—M's led 5-3.

Morneau was up, with his usual assignment of nudging Maurer to home plate. Morrow had another sudden case of voices in his head—the voices were saying, “Bad Pitcher, Bad!”

Morrow walked Morneau on four pitches.

He walked Cuddyer on four pitches.

The bases were loaded, and if perchance all these runners reached home, Morrow would have turned the game back over to Minnesota. Oh, those voices in his head!

The walks did not appear to be defensive moves, but the truth was Morrow had gotten himself out of the more dangerous part of the batting order. Brendan Harris was up, and though he’s no great threat win it with a homer, such a feat is not beyond him. His principal weapon, however, would be working the count.

Harris is so good at outlasting pitchers that he hadn't seem to notice that Morrow might have lost his edge after walking two batters. Ball one, ball two, and a called strike. Now Harris was intent on fouling off pitches to keep himself at the plate long enough for Morrow to make a mistake. The trouble was, Harris fouled off ball three, then ball four. He is good at matching wits with pitchers, but he gave Morrow too much credit. Aching for contact, Harris grounded out to end the game.

The Mariners uses the victory to get back to .500. The Twins are now at 15-17. As soon as they finish the chapter on winning as many as they lose, they can move on to extra credit: winning the majority of the time.

Most of today’s game was played as if we were in a library—Shush! Maybe a 2-run lead will be enough if we stay quiet! Our batters tiptoed around the Mariners, and our pitcher shushed them in turn. It’s not a very safe way to play baseball—someone is bound to come in and spill a Slushee on your library books if you try to keep it up for nine innings.

The bullpen let the game fall apart, but it happened so suddenly it was a shock. The Orioles performed the same presto-change-o move on us in the eighth inning to win last Thursday. The Twins appear to have constructed a team well-suited for seven-inning games. Well, one more if you can just hop over to Joe Nathan in the ninth. There’s a Star Trek-size black hole in the eighth right now.