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Twins MVP dad was strong during difficult time
MINNEAPOLIS — In most cases of cancer, the focus tends to be on the person battling the disease, and rightfully so. Sometimes, a member of that person’s family deserves recognition too.
Don Wander fits that bill, as he took over the motherly duties usually reserved for his wife, Mary, as she battled multiple myeloma over the last seven years before passing away in January. Suddenly, he was the one writing grocery lists and folding sheets, among other things.
The Twins honored Wander before Sunday’s game against the Padres at Target Field, naming him their “MVP Dad” as a part of Major League Baseball’s “My Dad, My MVP” contest. As a part of MLB’s annual Father’s Day actitivies, one “MVP Dad” per club was selected, with many being cancer survivors.
Wander was recognized on the field during a pregame ceremony and posed for photos with Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and former Twins catcher Terry Steinbach.
“You see these guys all the time, but you never ever think you’re going to get to actually be there by them,” Wander said. “That was very exciting.”
Wander, whose daughter, Andrea Kerfeld, entered him in the contest, said he didn’t even know about it until about a week and a half ago when she said he had some papers to sign.
Don and Mary were big Twins fans, and during her battle with cancer, it was one of the things that would allow them to forget about it all as they got lost in the games.
“We were here for Game 163 in 2009,” Wander said. “She had one room upstairs that’s just strictly Twins stuff.”
Baker strikes out 10 Padres in shutout win
MINNEAPOLIS — Scott Baker started it with a complete game in his last start. With an eight-inning outing on Saturday, he kept the Twins rolling on their winning streak.
For the third time in his career, Baker struck out 10 batters as the Twins won their season-high sixth straight game, 1-0, over the Padres.
Closer Matt Capps also pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 11th save of the season and his third in as many games, as the Twins secured their fifth straight series victory.
“If you like that kind of thing, 1-0 ballgames [are] very exciting,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Baker delivered yet another dominant start, tossing eight scoreless innings while allowing just four hits. He struck out eight of the first 13 batters he faced, reaching double-digit strikeouts for the first time since June 16, 2010, when he had a career-high 12 strikeouts against the Rockies.
After a season-high 112 pitches in a complete game last time out, Baker surpassed that with 115 pitches on Saturday, his most since July 19, 2009 against the White Sox. With the win, Baker improved to 5-4 with a 3.24 ERA.
Baker had a lot of success up in the strike zone, while also getting the Padres hitters to swing and miss 18 times out of 80 strikes.
“I’ve seen him before,” said Padres manager Bud Black, who was the Angels pitching coach through the 2006 season. “The fastball has a little bit of life at the end. He was pitching at the top of the [strike] zone. It takes a lot of discipline for a hitter to lay off that.
“He didn’t throw many pitches down the heart of the plate tonight.”
Things didn’t look good for Baker after he gave up a triple to Chris Denorfia to lead off the game. But that quickly changed, as Baker retired 23 of the next 27 batters he faced.
Baker struck out two batters in the first and followed that by striking out the side in the second. He added a strikeout in the third and two more in both the fourth and seventh innings.
But he insisted he was not trying to strike guys out.
“You make a good two-strike pitch,” Baker said. “When you strike guys out, that’s never good, at least it isn’t for me. It’s not a good idea. I tend to overthrow. So it’s just a matter of picking a good two-strike location, whether it’s an elevated fastball or breaking ball in the dirt or a fastball off the plate a little bit.”
Twins starters have posted a 1.73 ERA since June 2, giving up just 20 earned runs in 104 1/3 innings. Baker also helped lower the Twins’ ERA to a Major League-best 1.89.
Over the course of the Twins’ six-game winning streak, the starters have averaged eight innings with just five runs allowed in 48 innings for a 0.93 ERA.
Baker didn’t need much offense, and the Twins gave him just enough. Third baseman Danny Valencia homered for the second straight night, a second-inning shot that held up as the deciding run. It was Valencia’s seventh home run, and his team-leading 32nd RBI.
For the second time in three games, the Twins picked up the victory with a home run providing the only run in the game.
“It was nice to get that one. And it held up, which is great,” Valencia said. “Being able to come up with a hit like that helps you win the game, especially with the way things are going right now, is huge.”
Valencia has shown signs over the last few games of breaking out of his slump. After homering on May 21 in Arizona, Valencia batted .183 with five doubles and four RBIs in 22 games between home runs.
Over the last two nights, Valencia is 2-for-7 with a pair of long home runs and four RBIs.
Padres starter Tim Stauffer was impressive in his own right, limiting the Twins to just one run on six hits over seven innings. Valencia’s home run snapped Stauffer’s 16-inning scoreless streak, and dealt him his fifth loss.
His last run allowed came in the fifth inning on June 2 against the Astros. Despite his performance, he has received just 19 runs of support from the Padres offense, with Saturday marking the fifth game in which the offense did not score with Stauffer on the mound.
“I thought that Stauffer threw very well tonight,” Baker said. “It was just a matter of one pitch.”
Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Twins notebook, 6/18
MINNEAPOLIS — When two runs allowed over six innings marks your team’s worst start in nearly a week, you know you must be doing something right.
One of the biggest keys to the Twins winning 12 of 14 games has been starting pitching. Since June 2, Twins starters entered Saturday having posted a 1.87 ERA, while allowing 20 earned runs in 96 1/3 innings with 61 strikeouts against 16 walks.
In the last time through the rotation, Twins starters averaged eight innings per start, including a pair of complete games by Scott Baker and Carl Pavano.
“Any time you have that working for you, it means you’re still in the games if your starter’s still in there late,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “You want to see your starters going deep into games, and that means you’re having those opportunities to win things. Normally when they’re out there the game’s a pretty good one.”
In the month of June, the Twins had a Major League-best 2.01 ERA through Friday night. Not only is their ERA the best, it’s a half-run better than the Phillies’ second-best mark of 2.52 and nearly 1 1/2 runs better than the Mariners (3.45), who rank second in the American League.
On their current homestand, Twins starters have gone 5-1 in the first seven games, with a 1.82 ERA over 63 innings pitched. The only disappointing start came against the Rangers last Saturday when lefty Brian Duensing gave up seven runs (three earned) on seven hits in two innings.
Duensing made up for it by holding the Padres to two runs over six innings Friday night.
“Our starters have all kind of adjusted to what they need to do,” Gardenhire said. “They’re throwing the ball very well. Hopefully it’ll continue.”
Not surprisingly, the starters’ success has coincided with much better performances out of the Twins’ bullpen this month as well. Before right-hander Alex Burnett gave up a three-run homer Friday night, the bullpen had allowed just three runs in 28 2/3 innings in June.
Even with those three runs added, the Twins bullpen has posted a 1.71 ERA in June. A common theme with both the rotation and bullpen has been a significant reduction in the number of walks issued lately compared with early in the season.
“More so than anything else, I think it’s just a concerted effort to throw the ball over the plate,” Gardenhire said. “They all know that working ahead in the count, and not walking people, it’s been proven that it’s been successful here, and pretty much everywhere else in baseball.”
Twins notebook, 6/17
Mauer back behind dish and batting third
MINNEAPOLIS — Joe Mauer was put right back in a familiar spot in the Twins lineup for the first time since April 12, batting third and playing catcher.
That still didn’t keep the 2009 American League MVP from feeling a little nervous.
“It’s been a long time since I stepped in the box,” Mauer said. “I tried to keep it simple tonight. A pretty tough lefty [was] out there tonight and I just tried to use the whole field and stay up the middle.”
Mauer didn’t waste much time getting his first hit in two months, either.
With a runner on and one out, Mauer hit a 92-mph fastball back up the middle, scoring Alexi Casilla from second base for his fifth RBI of the season.
“It was awesome,” Mauer said. “It was a good night.”
His other three at-bats did not go so well — Mauer finished 1-for-4 — but it still was a successful return for the St. Paul native as the Twins picked up the 6-5 victory.
Mauer said it felt good to be back in the lineup and behind the plate. Left-handed starter Brian Duensing said he and Mauer didn’t miss a beat.
“It felt the same,” Duensing said. “Seeing him back there just kind of felt like he’s been back there for a while. So it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.”
Even with his offense playing so well lately, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he had no hesitation about putting the four-time All-Star in his usual spot in the order right away.
“You get the people you started with, and if we get them healthy and on the field, we expect to win with that group,” Gardenhire said. “That’s what we’re trying to do, is get all of our healthy guys back on.”
For Mauer, it was his 710th career start batting in the three hole. He has just 96 combined starts in any of the other eight spots in the order, with 67 of those coming in the No. 2 hole.
Mauer had been batting second before hitting the disabled list two months ago, mainly due to the absence of Tsuyoshi Nishioka at the top of the order. Now, with Ben Revere leading off and Casilla swinging a hot bat in the two spot, Mauer is back in the three spot.
In nine games before going on the DL, Mauer batted .235, with a .289 OBP and .265 slugging, with a double and four RBIs. Mauer went 6-for-23 in seven rehab games with Class-A Advanced Fort Myers. He had two doubles, a home run and six RBIs for the Miracle.
Gardenhire put out his 64th different batting order Friday due to all of the Twins’ injuries. He has not used any one batting order more than twice this season, and the Opening Day lineup has not taken the field at home yet this season. But getting Mauer and Nishioka back should begin to make things easier on his filling out the lineup card.
“It’s not easy, but you just have to kind of ad lib a little bit,” Gardenhire said. “Kind of break the lineup up a bit and see what happens.”
Gardenhire: Perkins ready to go as setup man
MINNEAPOLIS — Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said he would have no problem using lefty Glen Perkins in the eighth inning Friday night. He stuck to that, calling on Perkins to preserve a 6-5 lead against the Padres.
“It’s like I never left,” Perkins said. “That was good. Get right in there and get thrown in the fire, I like that.”
Perkins showed there was no need for him to be eased back in at all, pitching an impressive scoreless inning. After giving up a leadoff single, Perkins retired the last three batters he faced, two of them on strikeouts.
Before being sidelined by a strained right oblique, Perkins was the Twins’ most effective reliever in April and for the first three weeks of May.
He showed no sign of doing anything different in his return, lowering his ERA to 1.52 in 23 2/3 innings of work. Perkins has 24 strikeouts in 23 appearances.
“His fastball was jumping,” Gardenhire said. “He had a couple nice breaking balls, but the fastball was coming out of his hand, that was evident. The last guy he threw to, he really just let it fly, and said ‘Here it is.’ The ball was jumping out of his hand pretty good.”
Reliever Joe Nathan (elbow soreness) is scheduled to begin a rehab stint on Saturday with Triple-A Rochester, and could come off the disabled list as soon as next Friday in Milwaukee.
Gardenhire said he wants Nathan to pitch three times for the Red Wings in the next week, with the latter two being on back-to-back days.
Gardenhire suggested a potential schedule of Nathan making his first appearance Sunday, followed by back-to-back outings on Tuesday and Wednesday, with an off-day Thursday before returning Friday.
“He said he feels great, the arm feels as good as it could feel,” Gardenhire said. “We get three games out there, that’d be great. And then we’ll see where we’re at with him.”
Right-hander Kevin Slowey (abdominal strain) was scheduled for long toss on Friday and Saturday, as well as a full bullpen session Sunday in Fort Myers.
“He’s pretty optimistic that he can start facing some hitters sometime in this next week,” said Twins head trainer Rick McWane.
Perkins eager to return to club
MINNEAPOLIS — When the Twins were in the middle of their worst struggles in late May, lefty reliever Glen Perkins remained dominant. That is, until he joined the long list of Twins to hit the disabled list this season.
Perkins went down with a strained right oblique after leaving his outing on May 21 in Arizona, having faced just one batter. In his absence, the Twins have gone 12-10 without Perkins, including a 10-3 mark in June.
He was activated from the disabled list after Thursday’s 1-0 win over the White Sox, and on Friday, he’ll get his chance to be a part of the Twins’ current success. Fellow left-hander Chuck James was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to make room for him on the 25-man roster.
“[Joe] Nathan and I’d sit there, look at each other and think, ‘Man, it’d be fun to be out there,'” Perkins said. “We were home for that 10-day road trip, we were here in the morning every day, and we’d talk about the game the night before and wish we were a part of it. So, I’m definitely looking forward to getting back out there [on Friday].”
After posting a 1.59 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 22 appearances in the middle of the Twins’ struggling bullpen, Perkins has been forced to sit and watch as the staff has dominated this month.
The Twins finished Thursday with a Major-League best 1.80 ERA in June, with the bullpen having allowed just three earned runs since June 1 — for a 0.94 ERA over 28 2/3 innings pitched.
“It [stunk],” Perkins said. “And it’s even harder when the team starts playing well that you don’t get to be a part of it.”
In two rehab appearances with Triple-A Rochester, Perkins did not allow a run, while giving up four hits and striking out two batters in three innings of work.
After throwing one inning in his first appearance with the Red Wings, Perkins pitched a strong seventh and eighth on Tuesday.
“I tested it good on Tuesday,” Perkins said. “I threw pretty much everything as hard as I could, just to make sure that it was going to be OK.”
Blackburn’s gem gives Twins series win
MINNEAPOLIS — A lot of people will tell you that good pitching, or hitting, can be contagious. Nick Blackburn is not one of them.
Over the last four games, the performance of the Twins’ pitching staff might suggest otherwise. It was another fast-paced pitchers’ duel at Target Field on Thursday — the fourth in a row — and once again, the Twins came out on top, with a 1-0 victory.
Thanks to a solo home run by Michael Cuddyer and eight shutout innings from Blackburn, the Twins swept the rain-shortened series against the White Sox. Twins closer Matt Capps also pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save since June 6 and his ninth of the season.
“Blackie was a great story today, threw the heck out of the ball,” said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire. “Good sinker, slider, he had it all — changeup — working. … A heck of a game.”
Blackburn followed up dominant performances by Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano and Carl Pavano with one of his own. The right-hander scattered seven hits over eight scoreless innings of work, with one strikeout, a walk and a hit batter. He needed just 95 pitches to get through eight, before the Twins called upon the bullpen to close out the game.
One of the keys for Blackburn was the aggressiveness of the White Sox at the plate, which he used to his advantage.
“No one is up there trying to work the count too much, a lot of first-pitch swingers and guys who kind of put it into play early in the at-bat,” Blackburn said. “When everything’s coming out of my hand pretty well, that can sometimes play into my advantage.”
After Baker allowed one run in a complete game on Saturday, Liriano followed by giving up one run over eight innings while flirting with both a perfect game and no-hitter on Sunday. Pavano followed with another complete game on Wednesday night, and Blackburn continued the trend with his performance.
Over the last four games, Twins starters have allowed just three runs over 34 innings of work, posting a 4-0 record with a 0.79 ERA. Blackburn improved to 6-4 on the season, while lowering his own ERA to 3.16.
Minnesota entered the game with a Major League-leading 1.94 ERA in June, and lowered it to 1.80 with Thursday’s shutout of the White Sox.
“It kind of reminds you of ’06 — that run that we had in ’06 where you felt like you were going to win,” Cuddyer said. “You felt like, no matter what, you were going to win the game. And all that is, is just confidence.
“You get that confidence and you start feeling like you can win every game, and that’s kind of how we feel right now.”
During that 2006 run, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen dubbed the Twins the “piranhas,” because they just kept coming after opposing teams again and again with bloopers and infield singles — with players like Jason Bartlett, Nick Punto and Luis Castillo.
Asked about what the 2011 Twins were, if the 2006 club was the piranhas, Guillen had a new label for the current Minnesota ballclub, which featured a speedy center fielder and two quick infielders batting 1-2-3 in Thursday’s lineup.
“These are the little sardines here,” Guillen said. “They are sardines … but they can play. That kid who is the leadoff guy … pretty good. When you’re missing [Justin] Morneau, [Joe] Mauer, [Jim] Thome and [Jason] Kubel and you’re still winning games, you have to give those guys credit.
“They never sit back and say ‘We’re missing the big boys.’ They continue to play. That’s the reason Gardy is the most underrated manager. … I think Gardy makes those guys play, and play right. He gets the most out of his players, and they will be in the pennant race.”
Shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka made his first start for the Twins since suffering a fractured left fibula on April 7 in New York, batting third behind Ben Revere and Alexi Casilla. Nishioka went 1-for-4 at the plate, singling in the eighth — while showing excellent range in the field and improved arm strength, though he was also credited with a sixth-inning error.
Leading off the bottom of the second inning, Cuddyer crushed a 2-2 fastball from lefty Mark Buehrle into the bullpen in left-center field. It was Cuddyer’s 10th home run of the season and his 27th RBI.
Buehrle gave up just the one run on three hits — two by Cuddyer — in seven innings, but took the loss.
In his career against Buehrle, Cuddyer is batting .344 with three home runs. His 33 hits are the most for Cuddyer against any pitcher. Cuddyer is batting .340 with five doubles, seven home runs, 22 RBIs and 11 walks in his last 28 games, dating back to May 14.
“I feel good right now,” Cuddyer said. “It’s all cyclical, you’ve got to ride those good times out. Right now is a good time — and fortunately, we were able to get wins to go along with it.”
Jordan Schelling is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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