Twins 11, Tigers 7: Blackburn's Best Efforts Can't Stop Twins From Winning

Nick Blackburn was definitely not at his best tonight, and the Twins added another player to the DL when catcher/DH Ryan Doumit hurt his knee. Somehow, though, despite the terrible starting pitching, the Twins' offense managed to step up and not only keep Minnesota in the game, but score more runs than the Tigers and win the whole deal (I know, crazy concept, right?)

Nick Blackburn was only in the game for two innings. In those two innings, he managed to give up 6 hits, 6 earned runs, and two walks. He didn't give up any home runs, though, and did strike out two, so there are your Blackburn positives for the evening. The bullpen managed to stop the bleeding pretty effectively, as they've done most of the season. Jeff Gray was the only member of the bullpen to give up any more runs to the Tigers, and he only gave up two hits and one run. Alex Burnett, Brian Duensing, Jared Burton, and Glenn Perkins combined for 4.2 innings of scoreless ball, giving up only 3 hits and two walks.

You can find the rest of the recap after the jump, as per usual...

The story of the night was Minnesota's offense. Erik Komatsu, batting leadoff, was the only Twin to not get a hit tonight. Everyone else had at least one hit, and Josh Willingham won the gold star tonight, going 3-for-5 with an RBI, 2 doubles and 2 runs scored. Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, and Jamey Carroll (3rd baseman extraordinaire) all managed to get 2 hits apiece as well. Brian Dozier hit his second big league home run off of Porcello in the second, a nice 3-run bomb. Trevor Plouffe hit one in the ninth off of Balester, a 2 run dinger that would give the Twins their final run tally for the evening.

Studs
-The bullpen.
-The offense.

Duds
-Nick Blackburn.
-The injury bugs...poor Doumit.