Blackburn's strong mound performance guides Twins past Tribe

Baseball Betting Lines

04/24/2009 - Cleveland, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Justin Morneau belted his fourth home run of the season, and Nick Blackburn pitched strong seven innings to lead the Minnesota Twins past the Cleveland Indians, 5-1, in the opener of a three-game series.

Jose Morales went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Twins, who improved to 1-2 on a five-game road trip. Jason Kubel, who had a double, and Joe Crede also had an RBI. Denard Span went 2-for-5 with a pair of runs scored.

Blackburn (1-1) gave up just one run on six hits with four strikeouts to collect the win. Blackburn, who beat the Indians all three times he faced them last year, improved his ERA to 4.44.

Grady Sizemore went 2-for-4 and had the lone RBI for the Indians, who dropped to 2-2 on a six-game homestand.

Fausto Carmona (1-3) allowed five runs -- four earned -- on eight hits in a six-plus inning start to absorb the loss.

Ahead 3-1, Minnesota added two runs in the seventh to extend its margin. Back- to-back singles from Morales and Nick Punto set up a first and third with no outs. Rafael Betancourt then took over for Carmona on the hill.

A Span single to third loaded the bases. Alexi Casilla grounded into a force play with Morales being thrown out at home. Morneau grounded out, but advanced the runners to score Punto in the process. Following a Kubel intentional walk, Crede singled to shortstop to knock in Span. Michael Cuddyer went down swinging to end the frame.

Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth frame, respectively, to secure the victory for the Twins.

The Twins drew first blood in the opening inning to take an early 1-0 edge. Span, who singled to right to lead off, advanced to second on Casilla's groundout. After Morneau went down on strikes, Kubel doubled to left field to knock in Span. Carmona got Crede to ground out to end the frame.

Cleveland scored a run in the third to deadlock the tilt. Asdrubal Cabrera doubled off the wall in center field with one out. Sizemore's single to center knocked in Cabrera.

Minnesota put two runs on the board in the fourth. Morneau got things started by ripping a Carmona pitch into the seats in right field. With two outs and Crede on first, Delmon Young reached base as a throwing error by DeRosa allowed Crede to advance to third. Crede scored on a Morales single to left.

Game Notes

The Twins went 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position, while Cleveland went 1-for-5 with RISP...Minnesota was 10-8 last season against the Indians, but won just three of the nine games contested in Cleveland.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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