The Twins won the opening game of their series against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. All 7 of their runs came in the first 3 innings, and were helped considerably by Milwaukee errors and miscues in the field.

Francisco Liriano's struggles continued. He got the win, but struggled to get through 5 innings with 117 pitches thrown. He allowed 7 hits and 5 walks to Brewer hitters. He came up with big inning-ending strikeouts in the 4th and 5th innings, which prevented what could have been more damage.

The Twins on Monday designated RHP Luis Ayala for assignment and called up 27 year-old RHP Bobby Keppel from AAA Rochester. In the grand scheme of things, the move is probably pointless. They've basically swapped one bad pitcher for another one. Still, the move raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm not sure what the Twins were expecting when they signed Ayala to a 1-year $1.3 million contract in the offseason. His numbers this year have been almost perfectly in line with his career marks, but apparently Bill Smith and Company have decided that's not what they're looking for. If they expected the 31-year old to somehow defy numbers posted in over 350 career big league innings, they're absolutely insane.

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the tables on the Twins Wednesday night. One night after they lost 8-2, they beat the Twins by the same score. 5 of their 8 runs came by way of the homerun. For a team that entered the game tied for last in baseball in home runs (37), getting 3 in one night is an unusual accomplishment.

Francisco Liriano allowed 2 of the home runs and took his eighth loss of the season. However, there were some encouraging signs from the start. Liriano had allowed 34 walks in his 13 previous starts this season, which is above his career average. On Tuesday he allowed just 1 walk and didn't get deep into counts with as many hitters. In fact, he was able to get through 7 innings of pitching for just the 3rd time all season, and first time sine May 4th.

The Twins have been shuffling things around a bit the past few days as they deal with injuries and struggling players. Here's a rundown of what's happened.

On Friday the Twins activated Nick Punto from the DL and optioned Alexi Casilla to AAA to make room. It was the second time this season that Casilla has been demoted.

On Saturday the Twins optioned Anthony Swarzak to AAA right after his 7 shutout innings against the Cubs. The Twins recalled catcher Jose Morales to take his place. With several hitters on the DL and the fact that Joe Mauer is often being used as DH on his offdays, Ron Gardenhire wanted to have a 3rd catcher. The move brought the Twins' pitchers down to just 11. Morales has not played in either of the 2 games since being recalled.

The Twins won their second consecutive game against the Oakland Athletics thanks to a 9th inning comeback sparked by the bottom of the Twins' lineup. The inning started with the score tied 3-3 and a Joe Crede triple. 2 singles, 2 walks and 2 wild pitches later the Twins had a 3-run lead with Alexi Casilla (pinch runner for Crede), Delmon Young and Matt Tolbert all scoring.

Jason Kubel had hit a pinch-hit home run for Carlos Gomez in the eighth inning to tie the game. With Denard Span out of the game with illness, it made for an interesting defensive alignment in the final two innings. Delmon Young started the game in LF. Michael Cuddyer had started the game in RF, and was moved over to CF to replace Gomez defensively. Kubel played in RF. Could that possibly be the worst defensive OF the Twins have ever put on the field?

Just about everything went right for the Twins on Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics...until the 9th inning. The Twins scored 10 runs and Scott Baker had allowed just 2 hits and 0 walks through 8 innings. He came back out for the 9th inning, and things fell apart.

Baker loaded the bases with 2 hits and a walk with no outs. Jesse Crain was called upon to relieve him. Crain allowed a hit and a walk, then an Alexi Casilla error allowed another run to score. Crain wasn't able to retire a batter before Jose Mijares had to be called upon. Mijares struck out Jason Giambi, but then walked the next two batters.