MN Sports Blog

The Good:

.434: Batting average for Delmon Young in the month of July. Young had 12 doubles, a triple and 6 home runs with 30 RBIs in that span. He has been on absolute fire with no sign of slowing down. He pushed his batting average all the way up to .335 and ranks fourth in the Majors behind Josh Hamilton, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Morneau. He is also tied for fourth in RBIs with the Phillies’ Ryan Howard at 81.

.453:  Batting average for Danny Valencia for July. Valencia played in just 16 games in July but he made them count. He had 24 hits in just 53 at bats with 6 doubles a homer and 11 runs driven in. The Twins haven’t had a productive third basemen in a few years so Valencia could be just what they’re looking for.

4-0: Carl Pavano’s record for the month. Pavano was outstanding for the Twins this month as he was undefeated while posting a 2.91 ERA 24 strikeouts and just 7 walks. Pavano was tied for third in the month of July for most innings pitched with 43.1 behind only Felix Hernandez of the Mariners and Johan Santana of the Mets.

33: The team-leading number of strikeouts for Francisco Liriano. Liriano went 3-1 in July and improved to 10-7 on the year while posting a 2.97 ERA in July.

.311: Team batting AVG – 1st in MLB

60: Number of doubles – 1st in MLB

143: Team RBIs – 3rd in MLB

15-11: record in July riding a 7 game winning streak

13: wins by starters

The Bad:

.232: Jason Kubel’s average for July. Kubel had a very streaky month of July where it seemed to be feast or famine. Kubel struck out 27 times in July which by far led the team with the next closest being Michael Cuddyer with 14. On the season Kubel is hitting .259 but he does have 61 RBIs and 12 dingers.

.245: Average for Denard Span in July. Span was on fire in May hitting .353 but he hit just .264 in June and now down to .245 in July.

8.00: ERA for the usually dependable Matt Guerrier. Guerrier was 0-3 in July giving up 8 earned runs in just 9 innings while giving up 12 hits and 4 walks.

Team Leaders for May

Batting Average:

1. Danny Valencia: .453
2. Delmon Young: .434
3. J.J. Hardy: .351

Runs Batted In:

1. Delmon Young: 30
2. Joe Mauer: 19
3. Jason Kubel: 15

Wins

1. Carl Pavano: 4
2. Francisco Liriano: 3
3. Scott Baker: 3

Strikeouts

1. Francisco Liriano: 33
2. Carl Pavano: 24
3. Scott Baker: 23

ERA

1. Jesse Crain: 0.00 (11.2 IP)
2. Brian Duensing: 1.83 (19.2 IP)
3. Carl Pavano: 2.91 (43.1 IP)

The Good:

Justin Morneau: Morneau has been on an absolute tear this season and even more so in the month of May: .400 AVG/ 6 HR/ 19 RBI .496 OBP. Morneau currently leads the league in hitting with a .377 AVG overall.

Denard Span: Span didn’t get off to the start most had hoped for but he has been turning it on as of late with a .353 AVG in May with 10 RBI and 10 stolen bases. Span was hitting just .211 in April with 9 RBI and 6 stolen bases. He also improved his on base percentage to .403 from .339 in April.

Nick Blackburn: After a brutal start in April (1-1 with a 6.85 ERA) he has been on fire in the month of May going 5-0 with a 2.65 ERA.

Team batting AVG: .283 – 4th in MLB

63 doubles – T-1st in MLB

12 Errors – Fewest in MLB

16-12 in May with a current five game win streak

15 wins by starters

The Bad:

Joe Mauer – Mauer is hitting “just” .293 in May with 1 HR and 11 RBI versus .414 in May of ’09 with 11 HR and 32 RBI.

Jim Thome – .217 AVG in May with just 7 RBI and 1 HR. Although he lacks the plate appearances and opportunities he is still disappointing so far this year in the power and run production.

Francisco Liriano – Liriano was the AL Pitcher of the Month in April going 3-0 with a microscopic .93 ERA in April but is 2-3 with a 5.15 ERA in May.

Jon Rauch – 7-for-8 saves with a 4.09 ERA in May vs. 1.80 ERA in April going 6-for-7 in saves. Rauch was fantastic in April but the saves have gotten a little more nerve racking ever since.

Read more…

Scott Baker (14-9) will face Nate Robertson (2-2) today.

Update: The Twins beat the Tigers this afternoon 8-3 and are now 2 games back with three games remaining.

The Minnesota Twins have scratched and clawed their way into this position by going 12-4 over their last 16 games. Last night’s loss to the Tigers put them 3 games back of the AL Central lead with only 4 games remaining. Today (12:05 PM) Scott Baker takes the hill against Nate Robertson in a literal must win game for the Twins. The Tigers can clinch the AL Central with a victory today.

If the Twins can pull off a victory today to put themselves within 2 games of the Tigers, then the Tigers would face the White Sox for three games and the Twins would face the Royals at home for the final three games. The upside is that the Twins will face the Royals but the downside is we will face the likely AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke for one of them.

Today’s match-up:

Nate Roberson is 9-10 against the Twins with a 4.21 ERA. He last faced the Twins on September 20th and earned the victory after giving up just 2 runs over 5 innings.

Scott Baker is 4-4 against the Tigers with a 4.57 ERA. He has struggled mightily against the Tigers this year going 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in 3 starts covering just 15 innings.

Who’s Hot?

Denard Span (.315) is doing his part to keep the Twins in it hitting .571 since September 25th (16-for-28) with 7 RBIs and 5 runs scored.

Magglio Ordonez has struggled for a majority of the year but he has gone 13-for-29 since September 19th for a .448 average. In that span he has collected 4 doubles, 7 RBIs but 0 home runs. Unfortunately 5 of those 7 RBIs have come against the Twins in this series.