I attended last nights game against the Brewers.  The game was very exciting and the back and forth nature made the game was everything that I could ask for in a game.  I want nothing more than to be able to go to a game that is compeditive and to see the Twins win!

A few observations from the game:

1.  The crowd:  I was pretty dissappointed in the crowd.  Considering that there were thousands of Brewers fans at the Dome, I was shocked to hear that the game attendance barely eclipsed the 30,000 mark.  How could a team that has won 9 straight games (not to mention the border states rivalry) draw so few fans?  Is it the economy?  Do people really have less interest in the Twins than in previous years?  I don’t believe that the economy is playing a big part in attendance numbers.  Certainly there are people who have to choose how to spend their dollars but historically this has been a series that drew more fans.  The only solution that I can think of is this:  I believe that the normal Twins fan is a casual fan at best.  These are the types who will “cheer” for the Twins when they are winning or when they have big name players with a national presence.  The loss of Hunter and Santana certainly kept some of the fans away from the ballpark.

2.  Nick Blackburn’s performance last night was confusing.  For much of the game it looked as if he was dominant.  He had 5 strikeouts in 4 innings but yet somehow gave up 4 home runs.  Two of the homeruns were on 3-2 pitches.  He will likely be working with Rick Anderson this week to come up with a better approach for these situations.

3.  Joe Mauer’s 9th inning heroics occured after he had fouled off 5 consecutive pitches from Mota.  Mota’s pitches were registering in the mid-to-upper 90s.  Mota’s pitch that Joe sent 416 feet to straight away center field was a horrible mistake.  The count was 0-2 when that pitch was crushed.

4.  Alexi Casilla continues to excite me.  His bunt attempt down the first baseline was awesome.  The way that he was able to avoid the tag from first baseman Fielder was about an athletic move as i’ve seen on the basepaths in some time.

5.  Joe Mauer has 3 homeruns in the month of June.  He also had a ball go off of the base of the fence earlier in the game.  It seems as if he’s hitting his power stoke a little more than earlier in the season.  I expect that his homerun totals will start to climb.  I see him as being a 10-15 homerun kind of guy.

Tonight the Twins will meet the Brewers again.  The twins will be looking for their 11th straight win which would tied their longest win record since 2006.

Go Twins!

It’s a cool and clowdy day in Minneapolis. This afternoon i’ll be making my trek across downtown to the Metrodome. I chose to attend todays game for a few reasons:
#1 - DQ Hat Day… The first 20,000 fans will be getting one of these:

They typically are not great hats but I kind of dig the old skool retro look. Hopefully I’ll be one of the lucky fans!

#2 I really want to see Nick Blackburn pitch. Everything that I have seen so far from him has been impressive. Although his record (0-1) does not reflect his dominance he has shown that he can compete at the big league level. He has pitched 17 2/3 innings while striking out 11 and walking 3. His ERA prior to todays game is 3.57 which ranks second on the team to Livan Hernandez who has a 3-0 record and a 3.00 ERA.
Hopefully Blackburn can out duel Jarrod Washburn of the Indians. The Twins have had a rough start the season while only winning 4 of their last 10 games (which they are currently riding a 2 game losing streak). With the sudden resurgence of the Detroit Tigers, a loss today puts the Twins at risk of owning the cellar of the American League Central.