It's become a common story for the Twins in 2006: shut down by a mediocre pitcher. Adam Loewen entered the Baltimore rotation on June 3rd and has never managed to complete 7 innings. He came into the game with a 3-4 record, a 6.12 ERA and a .369 opponent batting average. The Twins managed just four hits and one run through 8 innings against Loewen, but managed to tack on two runs against Latroy Hawkins in the ninth.

If you're gonna give up homeruns, it's best to make the solo homers. Carlos Silva did a good job with that, but unfortunately gave up five of them. Nick Markakis alone hit three homers (and no, don't feel bad if you don't know who he is). Silva got through 5 1/3 innings and Willie Eyre did a good job finishing out the game with 2 2/3 scoreless innings.

Game Notes

• Joe Mauer, who got two straight days of rest, was 2-4 with a 9th inning RBI triple.
• Luis Castillo, Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter were the only other Twins to get hits.
• Just a few weeks ago I thought Willie Eyre was destined to go back to AAA. Since then he's managed to work his ERA down to 5.77 from 7.84 on July 22nd.

This was one of those deflating games. Twins fans were pretty optimistic coming off a series victory against Chicago. Detroit had beat Chicago on Monday night and the Twins were just a win and a Chicago loss away from leading in the wildcard race again. Detroit beat Chicago, but the Twins fell flat again. This is a series the Twins shouldn't lose, so they'll need Matt Garza to get them on track Wednesday. Of course, some offense would be nice too.