Ugh

I was going to write up a nice, long, thoughtful post for today, but the conclusion of yesterday's game sapped me of all motivation. What a painful loss. The Twins battled their way to a 2-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning only to watch Joe Nathan implode, delivering the worst performance in his six-year career as Twins closer at an extremely inopportune time. Throwing away such a brilliant outing from Brian Duensing (7 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 2 BB, 7 K) makes the loss all the more difficult to swallow, because one really has to wonder how many more outings like that the Twins are going to get from him this season.

There's reason to worry about Nathan, who simply hasn't looked like himself in recent outings -- if he is going to be a liability for the final month of the season, the Twins won't have much of a chance. Of course, rebounding from such a heartbreaking loss will be enough of a challenge in and of itself.