Nick Blackburn

The Twins lost 4-1 at home to the Baltimore Orioles Monday night to begin a 4-game series. Baltimore snaps a 5-game losing streak with the win. Former Twin J.J. Hardy hit a homerun right after he hit a foul ball that appeared catchable for first baseman Joe Mauer but a Twins' fan interfered with Mauer.

The Twins placed righthander Nick Blackburn on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right forearm. Righthander Anthony Swarzak will replace Blackburn in the starting rotation. Righthander Lester Oliveros was called up from triple-A Rochester to take Blackburn's spot on the active roster.

The Twins lost 3-0 at home to the New York Yankees Sunday afternoon. Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixiera hit back to back homeruns against the Twins in the 7th inning. Granderson's homerun was an inside the park homerun. Ivan Nova threw 7 shutout innings with 5 hits allowed to get the win and improve to 13-4. Joe Mauer was 3-4 and Danny Valencia went 2-4 for Minnesota.

The Twins lost 7-1 at Detroit for the Tigers and Justin Verlander Tuesday night. Verlander allowed 7 hits and 1 earned run allowed in 7 2/3 innings with 8 strikeouts for the Tigers. Nick Blackburn allowed 11 hits and 5 earned runs in 4 2/3 innings for the Twins to take the loss and drop to 7-10. Joe Mauer and Ben Revere each had 2 hits and Justin Morneau singled in the lone Twins run.

The L.A. Dodgers routed the Twins 15-0 Monday night to extend Minnesota's losing streak to 6 games. The Dodgers knocked out 25 hits including 13 of them against Nick Blackburn. Blackburn allowed 7 earned runs and 13 hits in 4 1/3 innings to take the loss and drop to 6-6.

The Twins lost 5-1 at San Francisco Wednesday night to snap their 8-game win streak. The Giants snap their 5-game losing streak. Ryan Vogelsong threw 7 innings with 1 earned run allowed to get the win for the Giants. Nick Blackburn allowed 3 hits and 2 earned runs to take the loss and drop to 6-5. Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young each had 2 hits for the Twins and Tsuyoshi Nishioka drove in the lone Twins' run.

The Twins defeated the Chicago White Sox 1-0 Thursday afternoon at Target Field. Minnesota completes a 2-game sweep of the White Sox and have won 11 of their last 13. Nick Blackburn threw 8 shutout innings with 7 hits allowed and 1 strikeout to get the win and improve to 6-4. Matt Capps threw a scoreless 9th inning for his 9th save. Michael Cuddyer hit a solo homerun accounting for the lone Twins' run.

The Twins beat the Royals 7-2 in Kansas City Saturday night to get their 3rd straight win. Alexi Casilla was 4-5 with a run scored and 2 RBIs and both Matt Tolbert and Ben Revere had 2 hits and 2 run scored for Minnesota. Nick Blackburn allowed 7 hits and 2 earned runs in 5 innings to get the win and improve to 5-4 on the season.

The Twins beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 Tuesday night to end a 4-game losing streak. Nick Blackburn threw all 9 innings with 7 hits and 2 earned run allowed to get the win and improve to 4-4. Denard Span went 3-4 with a run scored and 1 RBI, Alexi Casilla went 2-3 with 2 run scored and Jason Kubel was 2-4 with 1 RBI. The Twins improve to 16-31 and are now 14 1/2 games back of Cleveland for first place in the American League Central.

The Twins downed the White Sox 3-2 in Chicago Wednesday to complete a 2-game sweep. Nick Blackburn threw 6 2/3 innings with 4 hits and 1 earned run allowed to get the win and improve to 2-4. The win for Blackburn is his first since April 3.