What a Win!

I want to start out with this somber note, the baseball community lost a broadcasting icon last night. Ernie Harwell passed away after his battle with cancer. I remember watching his speech last year from Comerica Park thanking all the Tigers fans for all the years of memories he would always remember. RIP Ernie, I know the Detroit Tigers and their fans will miss you dearly.

I always say when the Twins bring in a new player from an opposing team that they have to earn my respect, so JJ Hardy was no exception. Don't get me wrong he had already earned it but last nights performance earned him a ton of respect from me. From the plays in the field to the bat in his hand, that guy was on point last night! I know a lot of fans were concerned with him coming over to the organization after the seasons he's had in the past, but with how he has been playing so far this season he has really left us no reason to not trust him with this team. Yeah he may have an off day here or there, but what guy on the team doesn't? Mauer's not perfect, Cuddy's not perfect, neither is Thome and Morneau, but when he's on, he's on just like everyone else.

Plus he's pretty easy on the eyes :-)

Plus that gave Dick and Bert their exciting walk off win that they had been talking about an inning before. It's like whatever comes outta their mouth jinx's us in some way, shape, or form. They should just call the game and not say anything else, lol.

Welcome back Nick Blackburn, a well deserved complete game (his 4th in his career). I know a lot of people said putting Nick back in for the ninth was going to be a bad idea, yeah he may have gave up the game tying home run, but you know what? It was his game to lose. He went out there and pitched a smart game and I think it was only fair that he got to pitch the ninth. I know it all comes down to pitch count and what not, but when you have a pitcher who pitches a game like Nick did and then Gardy pulls them and someone else goes out there and blows it, I can't help but feel bad for whoever started that game.

I think k-bro said it best in her tweet last night "Seriously y'all? If Blackie *hadn't* gone out for the ninth, everyone would be complaining about it with him only having 85 pitches."

I'm super proud of Blackie and how he pitched last night. He went 9 innings with only 95 pitches of which 67 were strikes. He had 18 groundouts and 5 flyouts. I was really pleased with what I saw from Nick last night. He looked relaxed and fresh. Maybe we need to send a few more pitchers to Oklahoma!

So I decided after watching Cuddy last night that he's getting a couple extra in the skittle count. He's getting a plus one for that throw to first trying to get Ordonez out and he's also getting a plus one for being 5 feet short of a home run. He needs a little extra help getting out of the negative, although I have thought about wiping his slate clean and starting fresh and really keep track this time, lol.

Today we have Kevin Slowey (3-2) against Rick Porcello (2-2). Follow in Blackie's footsteps Kev, please!