Scott Baker News

"We're trying to win games, and whoever's going to give us the best chance to win games is going to continue to get the ball," he said before the Twins' game Friday night, May 25, against the Detroit Tigers at Target Field.

Haren threw his first shutout of the season -- a four-hitter with a career high 14 strikeouts -- in the Angels' 3-0 win over Seattle, and his 14 K's were the most in a shutout for an Angels pitcher since Chuck Finley fanned 15 on May 23, 1995.

The Minnesota Twins are barely one-fourth of the way through the season and they are about to use their ninth starting pitcher.

Twins pitcher Jason Marquis talks with catcher Joe Mauer and pitching coach Rick Anderson during a rough outing Sunday in Milwaukee in which he gave up eight runs in 1 2/3 innings.

It's interesting how the current situation for the Twins bears some similarity to the situation when Terry Ryan first became GM back in the mid 90's. Following the strike-shortened 1994 season, the Twins were replacing general manager Andy MacPhail, the architect of Minnesota's two World Series Championships in 1987 and 1991.

Thirteen games under .500 a week into May is no way to start a baseball season, yet that's where the Twins find themselves after wrapping up a 1-5 road trip with a 5-2 loss to the Mariners on Sunday, May 6, at Safeco Field.

"I'm not trying to strike people out," Twins starter Nick Blackburn said when asked his personal definition.

After finding themselves on the receiving end of a no-hitter, the Twins ' problems are more than apparent.