All-Star Hurt

The Twins role players have been carrying them for the past couple weeks. During that time, Mauer's average has dropped more than 10 points, Morneau has two rbis, and Joe Nathan has now blown two saves, his ERA now above 2 for the first time all year. He's been visibly shaky his past few outings, but his last one on Monday gave a hint that maybe he'd found his control again. Guess not. For the first time this year, Gardy pulled Nathan in the ninth inning. Matt Guerrier, pitching for the third day in a row, gave up the game-winning hit, thanks to a short but accurate throw by Mr. Spantastic and a bobble by Marlboro Red (would another, more athletic catcher have made that play?).

The good thing to take away from this is Brian Duensing's performance. That's two starts in a row where he has struck out a batter per inning. With his stuff, he shouldn't be doing this, but he is anyway. Like today's opponent Mark Buehrle, Duensing is able to do less with more. White Sox hitters were constantly ahead or behind the ball. None of his seven strikeouts were looking. Generating swings-and-misses is a measure that advanced statistics measure pitchers by. Once he gets a few more starts, we'll see if these results are for real, but for now it's exciting to see what the D is doing. He deserved the win and then some.

Even the best of players have slumps, and Nathan has gotten out of plenty of jams in the past. Of course, he wasn't really in a jam in this situation. I'm not sure when the last time he gave up back to back homers was, but I'd bet money it was not with the Twins. Mauer came through with a double that allowed the Twins to take the lead, but Morneau has been stinking it up for most of August. Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer, and Jason Kubel are doing their best to give the Twins runs, but if they're going to catch the Tigers, the M and M boys will have to start playing to their reputations. Not to mention Joe Nathan finding his command.