Both Ubaldo Jimenez and Ricky Nolasco came into Friday's game struggling to regain their form. They both did, with Jimenez regaining more of his form more better (that works, right?) in a 3-0 shutout victory for Baltimore over Minnesota. It was the Twins' fourth loss in a row, dropping them back to their season-worst 3 games below .500.
Jimenez was close to unhittable all night, surrendering just three hits while striking out 10 in 7.1 innings of work and lowering his ERA a full point-and-a-half.
Nolasco wasn't quite as effective, but only made a couple mistakes. Doubles by Nelson Cruz (this one actually misplayed by Jason Kubel, but whatever, official scorer) and Matt Wieters in the 4th gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Cruz followed that up in the 6th with one of the hardest hit home runs you will see in your natural life, a line-drive dong off the facing of the third deck in left. CJ Zero has your Vine: https://t.co/dGtpSsfaUi
Dang.
That said, Nolasco pitched a complete game! Unfortunately, it was during a game when the offense regressed all at once. 3-run, 9 IP outings are to be celebrated.
ROBOT ROLL CALL
# | Commenter | # Comments |
---|---|---|
1 | SooFoo Fan | 50 |
2 | whiskeyplz | 43 |
3 | kenzertz | 41 |
4 | montanatwinsfan | 36 |
5 | DavidRF | 23 |
6 | amiller92 | 22 |
7 | myjah | 21 |
8 | WestRiverTwinsFan | 20 |
9 | Flip27 | 8 |
10 | bean5302 | 5 |
11 | DerTwain | 4 |
12 | ColossusOfRhode | 1 |
Charts & Graphs
Source: FanGraphs
Notes
- Joe Mauer is struggling. He's batting .136 with runners in scoring position for the season (thanks Tyler), and struck out twice in those situations on Friday. See how easy it is to legitimately criticize him without sounding like he killed your dog? Just use math!
- Danny Santana joins the club on Saturday for some bench help.
- They gave away cowbells to the Target Field faithful in honor of Chris Colabello. He went 0-for-4.