Nathan/Blanco Nathan/Bowen??

[Mudcutter]

Anyone notice who was behind the plate for nathan's two recent bad outings??? Bowen. Yes, I think Joe's curveball lately has been a bit dismal. But I think the pitch calling by Blanco is much better in the clutch as he is a veteran compared to the inexperienced Bowen. I know Joe barely got out of the 9th agst TExas on Wed night and left the bases loaded and a flyout to Hunter of Nix's bat. But he walked 2 and struckout 2 compared to just bad pitches on Tues night. ANyone have any comments on this?? Regardless, Ihope Joe
s got his confidence up after not giving up a run since June 6th.
GO Twins.

[Swamprat72]

I hope he gets his confidence back as well. I'm not sure about this, but it seems he is overthrowing his curveball. He was throwing it in the mid to high 80's, and I think when he was on it was lower 80's... Either way he has been pitching very well this year and you knew that he was eventually going to give up some runs.

[bigbucks]

I definitely think that Blanco was the difference in Nathan being able to gut his way through another tough outing. You could see in his body language last night that he just wasn't pitching with the same confidence.

He said when they interviewed him after the game that he was battling his head out there right now & that Blanco really helped. He also said he was fairly happy with his pitches in one of his losses, they just hit a couple of good ones anyway. He also had said to someone else I believe that he'd made some bad pitches towards the end of his streak & gotten away with them. Which it seems like with most scoreless streaks towards the end they're flirting with losing them, but the hitters are battling their own head that the guy's "unhittable". Baseball's so mental, especially with the long major league season, it's unreal.

[wade22]

Shades of LaTroy Hawkins as a closer...load the bases and get the third out on a pop fly to the warning track.

When a pitcher can't throw a breaking ball for a strike, pro hitters can really tee off. Nathan's slider isn't moving too much either.

Not going about it too much yet...the lead is still there and Nathan's just hit a wall. He'll pitch his way through it. I think his nerves are a little tight, you can see his control waver.

[IFallsRon]

The pitches come from the bench. The catcher just has to put his glove where he was told in the pregame.

Nathan is a stud compared to how exciting the last guy made the end of games. Gardado was a gascan waiting to ignite.

[bigbucks]

I'm pretty sure they weren't telling him to throw those high pitches that Blanco had to keep jumping up to reach last night. He probably hasn't ever had this kind of stretch before after being "locked-in" for so long. He may have even started thinking he couldn't give up a run after that streak. I'm sure he'll be fine, just has to work through it. He doesn't have the headcase history of Latroy & he just plain has better stuff then Eddie.

[eyecrosser2000]

Like Yogi said--Baseball is 90% mental, the other 50% is mechanics (or something like that).

I would rather have Joe struggling a little now, with time to work out of it; as opposed to doubting himself right before the playoffs. He just needs to trust his stuff and throw the ball. Sometimes he'll get hit, but as long as he doesn't issue walks he'll get the job done.

[The Grebe]

I think we can all relax about JN, he can't pich perfect forever!

All athletes have highs, lows and runs down the middle between the two! He's new, he will figure out his plateau.

Jordan, Woods, Nicklaus, Ryan, Namath, Agassi, Ali, Puckett, they all had to find their zones and it took a little experience.

If JN is still throwing them over the fence come play-off time, "Oh, Oh!"

[honker23]

I think JN is the best closer we have had in MN for the last 10 years. He had an unbelievable streak and it ended. The guy has never been a closer and look what he has panned out to be. His biggest problem had been his inability to get ahaed of batters by spotting his fastball on the corners. He also was facing a couple of the best hitting teams in baseball when his streak ended. He will be fine for us come play-offs