The WGOM

Time: 1:10 p.m. CDT

TV: WFTC

Radio: TRN, XM 180

Starting Pitchers: C.J. Wilson (14-5, 2.88 ERA, 1.19 WHIP) vs. New Nick Blackburn (1-2, 2.16, 0.78).

"New" Nick Blackburn is of course Blackburn since he was promoted back to the major leagues when Kevin Slowey went on the DL. The most encouraging fact is that Blackburn has as many strikeouts (13) as base runners allowed in 16 2/3 innings. I certainly don't expect him to maintain a K-rate of nearly8 per 9 IP going forward, but if he can maintain it around 6, he can be quite good, especially if can keep the base runners pounding the ball into the ground when they do put it in play.

New Blackburn's biggest problem has been run support as the Twins have managed to score all of one run in his two starts. Runs may again be hard to come by today as Blackburn will be dueling with C.J. Wilson, who is on his own hot streak.

Wilson is 7-0 in his last nine starts, all Rangers victories. He has dropped his ERA from 3.35 in that stretch. He's confounded the Twins for the most part as well. The Twins collectively are hitting .173 off him in 35 career innings.

I'm surprised I haven't heard more noise for Wilson for the Cy Young in a pretty weak season for dominant pitching performances. He's probably snuck up on people because he was just 7-5 before taking off the last six weeks. But Wilson is second in the AL in WAR for pitchers (according to B-Ref) and third in adjusted ERA+.  He also leads the league in fewest hits per 9 IP.

The Twins have had difficulty finishing off sweeps this season. This one would be real nice considering the uncertainty of the bullpen for the first two games. The bullpen is in much better shape now to support Blackburn. After today, the Twins play only one winning team, the White Sox in Chicago for three, before finishing the season with four games against the Blue Jays. Let's make that last series irrelevant. GO TWINS!!

Colby Lewis (167 IP, 3.56 ERA 3.52 FIP 3.92 xFIP) v. Carl Pavano (189 IP, 3.52 ERA 3.73 FIP 3.94 xFIP)

You need guys like Colby Lewis if you want to win.

It's true.

Of course, if a team doesn't have some dudes like Mauer or Morneau, it ain't gonna be easy, but dudes like Mauer and Morneau cost $$$$. The Rangers went out and signed Colby Lewis to a two year, $5 million deal in the off season, hoping that success that he'd had in Japan would translate into success in the majors. In other words, the Rangers made a small gamble... and jackpot. Lewis is making $1.75 million this year and so far, he's produced $14.9 million worth of value. They also hold a club option on him for 2012, but if he turns into a huge pumpkin, he's still been very valuable to this club in 2010 and there's an old saying that flags fly forever. The Rangers are going to win their first division title in over a decade. Unless you are the Yankees, it's guys like Colby Lewis that make things like that happen. Come to think of it, the Yanks would much rather have Lewis than A.J. "Cream Pie" Burnett.

Guys like Pavano don't hurt your effort, either. He's kind of scuffled lately, but even still, he's given the Twins a ton of innings and if you throw out one bad outing, he's been pretty darned good. He and Lewis are having almost the same year overall, with Pavano making a few more bucks and throwing a few more innings. It's the Guys You Need to Find to Win day at Target Field. Let's hope our GYNTW is better than theirs.

This is probably going to the last game, for a least a month, that Brendan Harris is not going to be on the Twins roster.  Personally, I am excited for the [redacted] phrase to work its way back into the WGOM lexicon.  Also, I spent $20 on this shirt in May that has already become outdated.

And the girls of Rochester, New York exhale.

Nick Blackburn v. Doug Fister

Blackburn is back for his second start following his mid-summer vacation to upstate New York, where he seemed to remember that old song (For it's one, two, three strikes you're out), posting a 5.40 K/9 rate in 21.2 innings of SSST. In his first start back, he K'd five Texas Rangers in seven innings, which would be a manna from heaven rate for the Twins from Nicky. The Rangers strike out 16.4% of the time (league average 17.4%) Mariners are a pretty strikeout happy team (19.4%, behind only the Rays and Jays in the AL), so maybe this club and their generally sucky offense will provide a confidence boost for Mr. Blackburn. Breathe through your eyelids, kid!

Doug Fister is tall.

The Twins have faced the 6'8, 193 pound string bean twice so far this year. On May 31, Cuddyer, Delmon, and The Dude all did some yard work in a 5-4 Twins win. Fister gave up 5 runs in 7 2/3 IP, with 6 Ks, no walks, and those three jacked dongers. F-Bomb went six innings and Gardy then went to Crain, Guerrier and Rauch, who gave a run in the ninth but still nailed down a "save".

On July 30th, Mr. Fister (heh) gave up jacked dongers to JI

JIM THOME and Lexi, as the Twins won 5-3. Mr. Fister allowed 5 runs (2 earned) in 5 innings and then looked to the bullpen, probably because his mound opponent that night, Scott Baker, manned up for 5 1/3 before Gardy ran through Mijares, Crain, Guerrier and Capps, who got a save. You might remember that this was Mr. Capps' first appearance with the Twins and afterwards the local media went on and on about how Gardy had such a deep bullpen that he could just go out and make four pitching changes a night and lock down win after win after win. The cringing at the WGOM World Headquarters was palpable. Since then, the Twins have plucked a Flores off the scrap heap and traded for another proven (All-Star!) closer. (How much fun is it that the Angels are sellers?)

Maybe tonight, Gardy can get 4 innings out of Blackburn and then turn to Neck Tat, Guerrier, Crain, Capps, and Fuentes. That would be like a new toy for the manager. You know that Crain and Guerrier will be pitching. What would really be cool is if Fuentes got a save. The Twins will win 5-2 with a single jacked donger, let's say that Joe Mauer gets it.

Time: 7:10 CDT

TV: ESPN

Radio: TRN, XM 180

Starting Pitchers: Jered Weaver (11-8, 3.11, 1.10 WHIP) vs. Scott Baker (10-9, 4.85, 1.34)

I have something of an inferiority complex when it comes to the Twins. Well, that's not true. I'm not sure what you would call it, but I always put more emphasis on these nationally televised games. (And I mean true nationally televised, not like on FOX where only a quarter of the country, if that, will see it). I really want the Twins to do well in front of the country, probably because I figure most of the country outside of the Upper Midwest isn't going to know just how good the Twins are most of the time, mainly because of the skewed coverage of a certain sports channel that won't be named here (because its name is a four-letter word). It's not like I should worry about opinion as much as wins and losses, but I do like the idea of someone out East going, "You know, these guys are pretty good." It probably also has a lot to do with the Twins' record when they travel out East as well.

I probably am overreacting. Joe Mauer got more votes than any AL All-Star, including Derek Jeter, and Justin Morneau beat out Kevin Youkilis at first base, so it's not like people haven't heard of the Twins. But I still really hate to have the Twins look bad on national TV.

This is the final game of a very good nine-game homestand. The Twins began it with a one-game lead and will have expanded on it regardless of the results today. However, after winning the first five games of the homestand, it sure would be disappointing to lose three of the final four games.

Of more concern is the rotation. After receiving brilliant starting pitching for more than three weeks, the last turn through the rotation was pretty ugly save for another great outing by Brian Duensing the other day. The other four veteran starters got hit around and had short starts. Things were made worse on Saturday when the Twins announced that Kevin Slowey was heading to the DL and the beleaguered Nick Blackburn was returning to the team. The reports from Rochester were mostly positive for Blackburn, but the way he was being hit around this season by major leaguers, I'll believe it when I see it.

This is why it is a pretty important start for Baker, who has been good at times, but mostly disappointing. Some might say he's just had bad luck because of his good K and BB rates, but I haven't seen too much of that when watching him pitch. What I've seen is a guy who can't figure out how to get his slider out of the strike zone consistently and especially when he needs it. He gets ahead of hitters and they still pound him with two strikes because he either hangs a slider or they foul off sliders and he tries to go with a fastball and that gets hit. Baker has allowed nine home runs this year with two strikes, three of them on 0-2 counts. When he does get that slider biting out of the zone, then watch out. That's when he has a dominant outing. But those have been too few and far between this year. Baker also was hit pretty hard in his last two starts, both against the White Sox, but the Twins have won his last five starts.

Baker will be facing off against Jered Weaver, who could be the most underrated pitcher in the AL. He leads the AL in Ks, is seventh in ERA, third in WHIP and tied for third in WAR for pitchers, according to B-Ref. His record is just 11-8 because of a lack of run support, which has been really bad of late. In his last 10 starts, the Angels have scored two runs or less seven times. Weaver is coming off one of his worst starts of the season when he gave up six earned runs in five innings in Boston. The Angels of course got shutout in that game.

This has been a good homestand, but a win tonight would make it a great one. GO TWINS!!!

Bell v. Slowey

The Twins look to win the series on Saturday after stomping the lifeless Angels on Friday night. The Angels are under .500 and almost certainly not punching a ticket to the post-season. I'm pretty happy about that.

Torii Hunter is back in town and he's taking credit for the stadium? Well, not really. He probably did go to a few luncheons and help lobby a little for the deal and of course that can only mean one thing for sportswriters: The House that Torii Built!!!!111!! It must be great to be a sportswriter, creating alternate realities in which to live. We all know that Torii likes to talk and I found this to be entertaining:

When Hunter left, the Twins knew they were getting a new stadium, but they were still stuck with a payroll that hovered between $60-70 million, and Hunter's price tag was simply deemed too high.

We'll never know if Hunter would have stayed in Minnesota if given the current financial circumstances, but one thing is certain -- his respect for the Twins organization has never been more evident.

"This is totally different," Hunter said. "I can't even explain to people how professional and classy this stadium -- what this organization looks like right now. They look great. You walk into the stadium and you're like, 'damn, Twins.'"

The Twins weren't going to give Torii a shitpile of money, they had to take care of the foundation, Mauer and Morneau, which they did. Another place where the Twins look great right now is in the standings. Check 'em out, Torii, if you can look up that high.

Meanwhile, Kevin Slowey, who hasn't yielded a hit in about two weeks, takes the mound tonight. After three crappy outings against the White Sox, hopefully Slowey can build on his last start and follow in the footsteps of Mr. Duensing, who's been terrific. Go. Twins!