After the worst start to a season of his career, Brad Radke has put together two pretty good outings and the Twins have still lost both of them. Baseball is a funny game; for two months we cursed about how the starting pitching has let us down. Now we’ve entered June and seen three good starts but have only managed three combined runs in those games. The worse thing though, is that we’re losing games that we should be winning. Errors and situational blunders have piled up this season and have played a partial role in the lack of success in the win column.

On Saturday Brad Radke gave up his customary first inning run (at least it was only one), but he shut down Oakland for the next 5 innings. The Twins remained scoreless until the 7th when Jason Kubel singled in Justin Morneau to tie the game. With runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out Rondell White pinch hit for Nick Punto. White, who before coming to the Twins was a professional hitter, struck out. Sure, it’s not always easy to come off the bench, but White needs to give us something more than a strikeout in a key situation like that. He’s failed time after time in key situations all year.

In the bottom of the 7th Jason Kendall led off with a single and was then bunted over to second. Mark Kotsay then hit an easy fly ball to the right side of the infield and Morneau struggled with it and ended up bumping into Castillo who was also after the ball; neither caught it. A rightfully upset Radke then walked the bases loaded and gave up a run on a sac fly. Oakland won the game by a score of 2-1.

Another blunder came in the 8th. Joe Mauer led off with a double and Torii Hunter walked. For some reason Gardy asked Michael Cuddyer to bunt, and if that wasn’t bad enuogh Cuddyer popped that bunt up to make the first out of the inning. Justin Morneau and Mike Redmond followed up with strikeouts to end the inning.

Game Notes

• Why is Punto batting leadoff?
• Why is Kubel batting 9th? He’s starting to feel comfortable at the plate; he was 2-4 today with the Twins’ only RBI.
• Mauer picked up 2 hits in the game as the DH.
• Jesse Crain pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning in relief of Radke.

Looking Ahead

Carlos Silva returns to the rotation on Sunday and will try to pick up the split in the final game of four against Oakland. The Twins claim he’s got his sinker back, but I’ll need to see a good start from him tomorrow to be sure of that. Rich Harden, who hasn’t started since April 26th due to a strained back muscle, will take the mound for Oakland in the game.