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| Blackburn helps Twins end skid MINNESOTA 4, COLORADO 2 |
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DENVER (Ticker) -- Nick Blackburn helped make the Minnesota Twins' first visit to Coors Field a successful one. Blackburn tossed seven impressive innings and Adam Everett drove in a pair of runs as the Twins posted a 4-2 interleague triumph over the Colorado Rockies on Friday. Blackburn (4-2) allowed two runs and six hits, striking out five without a walk in the hitter-friendly ballpark. The 26-year-old righthander threw 67 of his 88 pitches for strikes in recording his fourth win in five decisions. "I finally feel like I'm coming around a little bit as far as control of my pitches and getting back to more how I felt at the end of last year," Blackburn said. "I was throwing more curveballs and changeups, just finally trusting those pitches as opposed to coming after them with hard pitches all night." Joe Mauer and Mike Lamb delivered RBI singles and Delmon Young went 3-for-4 and scored twice for the Twins, who halted a three-game losing streak. "It was a nicely pitched ballgame," Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Blackburn was solid all the way, in and out, and the bullpen came in and held. To come out with a good win like that is very important after a tough three games." Clint Barmes finished a homer shy of the cycle for Colorado, which has dropped a season-high six in a row. The Twins opened the scoring against Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez in the third, when Carlos Gomez hit a two-out single, advanced to second on an error and scored on Mauer's base hit to center. Lamb doubled the lead an inning later, singling in Young, who had recorded the first of his two two-base hits. Colorado knotted the contest in the bottom of the fourth as Willy Taveras hit a leadoff single and scored on a triple by Barmes, who came home on a groundout by Ryan Spilborghs. Everett gave Minnesota the lead for good in the sixth, plating Young with a sacrifice fly after the left fielder led off with a double and moved to third on a flyout. Two innings later, Everett lifted another sacrifice fly to drive in Michael Cuddyer for a 4-2 bulge. The Rockies threatened to rally in the final innings but were unable to pull even. With runners on the corners and two outs in the eighth, Dennys Reyes replaced Juan Rincon and retired Todd Helton to end the frame. Representing the tying run with two outs in the ninth, Yorvit Torrealba hit a shot to deep left-center field off closer Joe Nathan that Gomez chased down, making the catch while crashing into the wall to preserve the win - as well as Nathan's 13th save. "When I saw that ball going, I was running 100 percent from my first step," said Gomez, who bit his lip and tweaked both wrists on the play. "When I saw the fence and I had to jump, and when I jumped, I knew I got it. If I don't make that catch, it's for sure a triple because that ball would have hit the fence and rolled back. Then you got a tie game." Jimenez (1-4) pitched well, yielding three runs and eight hits in seven innings. The 24-year-old walked one and struck out five but failed to notch his first win since April 8 against Atlanta. "It was nice to be out there in the seventh inning against a pretty good hitting team," Jimenez said. "You always want to see a lead or a tie on the scoreboard, but I know the offense is going to come." "All he can do is pitch," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "We've got to find ways to create some offense. We weren't able to get much off their starter. We had opportunities again and we weren't able to cash in. That complete game is still eluding us, in all facets." |
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