Yaaaaay. (Game 2)

Last night’s game featured a lot of what happened the night before. As in, not getting nearly as many runs across as we should have. J.J Hardy had a strikeout and two GIDPs. But he also had a deep home run. Plus his arm is sick as hell. He just guns that ball going to his right. I’ve never seen a Twins shortstop do that, Pat Meares and young Guzzy being the only ones even close.

And of course, Morneau and Mauer homered, and that was enjoyable. But besides the home runs, our offense was stagnant and featured a lot of double plays.

Nick Blackburn wasn’t really on his game, and with his lack of stuff, that can sometimes result in very poor outings. But last night the Angels squandered a bunch of opportunities and ended up with only three runs. And towards the end (And maybe Blyleven was right about Nick being like Brad Radke and getting more tired as the game went on and thus, adding movement to his pitches) Blackburn started mowing Angel hitters down, resulting in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Not bad for an opening day start.

Plus Brian Duensing (Acting as a situational lefty in place of Jabba the Mijares), Matt Guerrier and Jon Rauch were perfect in relief, and that’s a very good sign. Particularly because I’m very concerned with Guerrier and Rauch’s peripherals from last year. Guerrier, for one, had a FIP of 4.35 and a BABIP of .222. That’s a little ridiculous, and he’s just one season removed from a 5+ ERA (Which everyone chalks up to overuse, but was that really all it was?). Rauch, well he’s more of a sturdy option than Guerrier, at least. He’s had a sub 4 FIP each of the last 3 seasons (And the year before that, his ‘best’ year with a 3.35 ERA and 8.47 K/9, his FIP was 4.36), and his average fastball velocity has not really declined. The one worry is he had a career worst 6.3 K/9 last year. Hopefully his two strikeout night last night is a sign that Rauch can be a serviceable closer.