Nick Blackburn has been going downhill since the beginning of June
In 2008 and 2009, Nick Blackburn had two seasons of pitching that were very similar to each other. He started 33 games in each of those years, he went 11-11 both years, and his ERAs for each year were similar (4.05 and 4.03).
After being shown a little promise of a really good season from Blackburn early this year, most of us are just hoping he can get back to the 4.05 ERA of the past two years.
Blackburn started a little slow, going 1-1 in his first 4 starts with an ERA of 6.85. But then he really took off in May. In 5 starts in May, he went 5-0 with an ERA for the month of 2.65. He pitched an average of 7.42 innings in each of those starts, and for the entire month gave up only 2 home runs (average of 0.4 home runs per game per game).
If it wasn’t for the incredible month that Francisco Liriano was having, we would have all been talking about Nick Blackburn being the best pitcher in our lineup.
Then came June.
Blackburn started 6 games in June. His record was 1-4. His ERA for the month of June was 10.17. He pitched about 12 less total innings in those starts, which put him down to less than 4 1/3rd inning per start in June. In the fewer innings than the month before, he gave up 3 times as many home runs (6), averaging one home run per start.
In his 3 starts so far in July, he’s 0-2 with an ERA of 9.39 for the month. He has taken his innings per game up slightly since June, averaging a little over 5 innings per game, but he’s already given up 5 home runs in 3 starts.
So what will it take to get Blackburn to turn things around?
At this point, I’m convinced that the only solution is a trip to the Minors. The Twins can’t afford to have such a gaping hole in their starting rotation right now. I have to assume someone like Brian Duensing would make a more solid option than Blackburn.
Maybe with a few starts in the Minors Blackburn could work out whatever problems he is having with his mechanics or whatever it is… or at least shake the cobwebs out of the mental portion of his game.
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