You can’t blame Nick Blackburn, Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan for the season ending loss for the Twins tonight. Blackburn was the losing pitcher but he deserved a better fate as he worked 6.1 innings tonight and only allowed 1 run on a 7th inning solo homer by White Sox’ DH Jim Thome. Mijares and Nathan followed with 1.2 shutout innings but the Twins couldn’t muster any offense off of John Danks and Bobby Jenks. The White Sox only had 2 hits in this game as Brendan Harris and Michael Cuddyer each had one apiece. The other pivotal play in this game (other than the Thome homer) was when Cuddyer was thrown out at home plate by Ken Griffey Jr. The Twins finished up with a 88-75 record as they had a real solid season but in the end they fell just a little bit short of making the playoffs.

No one player means more to his baseball team than 1B Justin Morneau. He has played in 151 games this season for the Twins and he is 178 for 577 (.308 avg, .901 OPS) with 92 runs scored, 23 homers and 126 RBIs. Morneau is the only Twins’ player this season with more than 17 homers or 75 RBIs which shows how valuable he is to the Twins’ offense. Without him the Twins would likely be a sub .500 team but they are currently only 2.5 games behind the White Sox in the American League Central….mostly because of him.

The Twins have traded 26-year old righty reliever Brian Bass to the Orioles for a player to be named later. Bass pitched in 44 games (0 starts) for the Twins this season and he was 3-4 with 1 save, a 4.87 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP. This is no loss to the Twins as Bass was nothing more than a mop up man in the bullpen for them.