Twins End Seven Game Losing Streak Thanks To Hughes

One of those younger players we were talking about today came up big, as Minnesota beat the Tigers 7-4 today.

Second baseman Luke Hughes, he of 72 games of big league experience, hit two home runs and drove in a career high five runs as the Twins offense awoke from it’s slump to pound Brad Penny, shelling him for 8 hits and 7 earned runs in 5 innings.

Jason Kubel also hit his tenth home run of the season for the Twins, who played one of their best games in over a month.

Brian Duensing went 6 somewhat shaky innings, but it was good enough for the win. He still had some control issues, walking three and giving up 7 hits and four runs over 6 innings. However, the bullpen came in and closed the door, as Alex Burnett, Glenn Perkins, and Jose Mijares each pitched a scoreless inning apiece to secure the win for Minnesota.

A Tale Of Two Teams As Tigers Play Twins For Last Time In 2011

Detroit is on a roll, and the Twins are in the middle of getting rolled.

This afternoon the Tigers will look for a sweep of Minnesota, a team currently on an seven game losing streak, and no semblance of climbing out of the rut they’re in any time soon.

With more injuries than front line combat units, the Twins are being forced to play young players and rookies, both in the field and on the mound. Hopefully, the experience they’re getting now will make the organization better in the long run, much like what happened in the late 1990’s. Players like Torii Hunter and Michael Cuddyer played earlier than the team wanted them to and their play early on wasn’t major league quality, but it paid off in the long run. And hopefully that will be the case with players like Rene Tosoni and Jason Repko.

Today, Brian Duensing starts for the Twins. Duensing is coming off of his worst start of the season against Baltimore, and has been flat out horrid for over a month. In his last five starts, he is 0-5 with an 8.65 ERA.

First pitch at Target Field is at 1:10.

Twins Drop Seventh Straight With 6-4 Loss To Tigers

The Minnesota Twins had an opportunity to beat the man that might be baseball's best pitcher on Saturday afternoon at Target Field. However, as with so many other things in the 2011 Twins' season, that opportunity faded into disappointment.

Detroit Tigers' right-hander Justin Verlander became baseball's first 20-game winner on Saturday, as the Tigers beat the Twins 6-4. The loss was the seventh in a row for Minnesota, and dropped them a staggering 18 games back in the American League Central division. They are now just 1.5 games ahead of the Kansas City Royals for the division cellar, and only the Royals and Baltimore Orioles. . .who swept the Twins in a four-game series earlier this week. . .have a worse record in the Junior Circuit than Minnesota has.

Detroit got on the board first in this one, as Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila both hit solo home runs off of Twins' starter Carl Pavano in the top of the second inning to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead. They extended that lead in the top of the fifth thanks to an RBI double by Ryan Raburn and an RBI single by Austin Jackson to make their lead 4-0.

The Twins came back in the bottom of the fifth, however, thanks to back-to-back solo home runs by Luke Hughes and. . .I hope you're sitting down. . .Jason Repko. Hughes took Verlander deep to start off the inning, and Repko's follow-up cut the Detroit lead to 4-2. Hughes struck again in the bottom of the sixth, lacing a two-run double to right field off of Verlander to score Danny Valencia and Rene Tosoni and tie the game at four.

Minnesota couldn't keep up the pace, however, and in the top of the seventh the Tigers took the lead back thanks to a single by Delmon Young. . .who looks like a completely different player since leaving Minnesota. . .off of Pavano and a single by Miguel Cabrera off of Matt Capps to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Tigers, and that's how things ended, as the Twins managed just one more hit the rest of the way.

Verlander's victory moves his record to 20-5 on the season, and he is the first pitcher to win 20 games before the month of September since Curt Schilling did so back in 2002. Pavano ended up taking the loss for Minnesota, dropping his record for this very disappointing season to 6-11.

The Twins will attempt to avoid a sweep for the second consecutive series as they host the finale of this three game set on Sunday afternoon at Target Field. The first pitch on Sunday is scheduled for 1:10 PM Central time, and the pitching match-up will feature Brad Penny taking the hill for the Tigers, while Minnesota will counter with left-hander Brian Duensing.

Twins Crushed By Tigers 8-1

Seriously, can this get any worse?

I mean, if this were a nightmare, it would have been constructed by Ellen Page, and it would star Michael Myers, Freddie Krueger, AND Jason.

Really, what more can be said? Bad pitching, terrible hitting, injuries, locusts, the Mississippi turning blood red (okay, maybe not the locusts and river part) have conspired to turn the Twins promising “It’s Happening” to “It’s Not Happening” to “A Disaster Is Happening” to “It’s Almost Friggin’ Comical What’s Happening”.

Minnesota is now 5-18 for the month of August, haven’t scored more than one run in six games, and are the first Twins team in history to lose six straight at home.

Not even the epically bad Billy Gardner managed clubs of the early 80’s or the TK teams of the late 90’s managed that.

So for the rest of the season, when you come here to read a Twins recap, it’s going to sound eerily familiar to this:

(Insert Starting Pitcher Name here) was terrible, unable to get out of the 6th inning, giving up a boatload of runs. The offense was just as bad, as (insert name of any hitter here) couldn’t advance a runner home from second with no outs, and (relief pitcher’s name here) was gasoline on a fire, taking what might have been a close game and turning it into a laugher in either the 6th, 7th, or 8th inning.

Yeah, that about sums every game up this year.

Tigers-Twins: Playing Out The String

Head on over to Twinkie Town. There is no truth to the rumor they are holed up in an apartment complex with Muammar Qaddaffi, waiting for the bitter end to arrive.