Nick Blackburn has found an assortment of uncommon ways to keep from getting credited with wins this season. There have been the blown five-run leads… the ninth-inning inside-the-park home run, courtesy of Delmon Young, last week at Kansas City… and now this, a line drive that grazed his glove on the way to turning his face into a Kimbo Slice mosaic.

At the time, he was in pretty good control against the Yankees, ahead 3-1 and getting out of most of the trouble that he created for himself. But then, with one out in the fifth, Bobby Abreu ’s line drive ticked Blackbiurn’s glove before hitting hard against his face — knocking him down to the turf for several seconds and then out of the game, with a fat lip and (apparently) little other damage.

After using all of their relievers (and Juan Rincon) on Saturday night, Gardy and Anderson had to be hoping for six or seven strong from Blackburn. But Brian Bass, Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan held the Yankees to three hits over the final 4 2/3 innings and the Yankees were finally put away for the first time in this series.

While there was an optimistic spin on Blackburn’s situation after the game, it remains to be seen how he’ll really feel over the next couple of days — which could allow Scott Baker to return to the rotation without the immediate (and unfortunately deserved) exile of Boof Bonser to the bullpen. We’ll see. For now, though, Gardy’s gotta hope that Senor Smoke Free can get through most of tonight’s game.

A thought about the Yankees. People disrespected and demeaned them early last season when they were floundering in last place in the AL East, and it’s been pretty easy to hurl the same barbs this season — too old, too little pitching, too many guys who used to be somebody.

But there’s still fight in the dog, as the Twins learned in the first two games of the series when Glen Perkins (with the umpire’s help) failed to hold the early lead he was given and on Saturday when Boof ‘n’ Punto combined to give the Yankees too many early chances and the offense couldn’t put away some late-game opportunities against the lesser-knowns (anyone not named Rivera) in the bullpen.

You simply can’t give the Yankees extra opportunities because they can rear up and be dangerous. Play a fundamentally sound game against them and you’ll be fine. Fundamental soundness, however, is less and less of aTwins trademark. They put together a pretty good effort on Sunday afternoon, but that has to happen more than once every three games.

And, by the way, how did Mike Lamb’s 11th-inning drive not leave the park Saturday night?

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.