May Twin of the Month: Nick Blackburn
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| Image via Keith Allison |
| Blackburn blossomed in May. Can a June swoon ensue tonight against Seattle? |
While Justin Morneau's exceptional May (.400 BA, .496 OBP, 19 RBI) deserves ample lauding, for my Twin of the Month I'm rolling with Nick Blackburn. In five May starts, Blackburn accrued a spotless 5-0 mark and charted a Quality Start in each outing despite striking out just 10 batters in over 37 innings of labor.
Most importantly: two of Blackburn's five May wins came against the Yankees -- who now own a 14-2 mark against our Boys over the last two seasons -- and three of those victories picked up the club following a loss in the game preceding.
Not only did Blackburn's May represent the first five win month of his career -- it also served as the righty's first four win month. As Blackburn matched his MLB-best (tied) five May wins with a stellar 2.65 ERA, the rest of the staff eschewed such consistency, as evidenced by their combined 9-9 mark and 4.36 ERA. Of the other four starters, only Kevin Slowey collected at least three May wins and only Scott Baker (at 3.38) had a monthly ERA below 4.24.
In accord with the Twins' beautiful and deservedly celebrated rep as control freaks on the hill -- Blackburn walked just five batters in May. And just as the diminutive K totals (just 17 on the year) record Blackburn's lack of overpowering stuff, it's more important to note how impressively the sinkerballer pitches to contact. In both the categories of Z-Contact percentage (% of times a batter makes contact with pitched ball in strike zone) and Contact
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| Image via Keith Allison |
The double play has proven a leviathan savior for Blackburn. For May, he induced six of those inning-savers (tied for third in baseball), which contributed to his 11 count (tied for second) on the season. Further evidence that his money pitch is cashing in can be viewed by the mere 2 bombs Blackburn allowed in May after yielding six in April.
For guiding the Twins to two desperately needed wins over the Pinstripes and for hurling the tenet of consistency in a month where the rest of the staff tossed a weekly diet of incongruous outings -- Nick Blackburn is our May Twin of the Month. For the award, Nick receives a free beard shaping, compliments of City Pages' fashion guru Jen Boyles.
Previous Twins of the Month:
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