Everyone in the Twins’ organization constantly preaches about doing the little things right. Dick and Bert seemed to emphasize the importance of playing defense, stealing, bunting, etc. even more than usual on Wednesday night’s telecast.

The Twins started off the game with a double steal and scored no runs. The Blue Jays committed 4 errors in the game and went on to win 5-4. It looks like, at least on this night, extra base hits make a bigger difference than “the little things”. The Twins picked up 11 hits, but no extra base hits. The Blue Jays needed just 8 hits to score their 5 runs.

Boof Bonser seemed to want nothing to do with Frank Thomas, who currently sits at 499 career homeruns. He walked Thomas twice and the second walk was followed by a Greg Zaun homer.

Nick Punto narrowly got a ball through the infield in the 2nd inning to drive in Kubel for the first run of the game. Punto then advanced to third when Josh Towers through the ball away on a pick-off attempt. On the next pitch Punto scored when a pitch hit off the top of Zaun’s glove and went to the backstop.

Michael Cuddyer was thrown out at the plate in the 3rd inning on a Jason Kubel single. In Scott Ulger’s defense, it took a nice thrown and a good play by Zaun to get the out, but these injuries and outs at home are getting old.

The Twins squandered an opportunity to pick up some ground in the Central. Detroit was rained out and Celveland was blown out by Oakland by a score of 13-7. The Twins now trail the Tigers by 6 games. The Twins are 39-37 on the year, 2 games worse than the 41-35 record they had at this point last season. They were 11 games behind Detroit last season.

Game Notes

• Four Twins had 2 hits (Castillo, Bartlett, Cuddyer and Kubel).
• The Twins left 10 runners on base, many of which were left in scoring position.
• Matt Guerrier pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings, but did allow one of Boof’s runners to score in the seventh.
• Dennys Reyes needed just 3 pitched to retire his two batters in the 8th and 9th innings.

Carlos Silva (5-8, 3.98) will take on A.J. Burnett (5-6, 4.00) at 12:10 PM on Thursday afternoon. Justin Morneau is likely to sit again, but is expected to return for the weekend series in Detroit.

Rochester tees off on Seo

In two starts against Jae Seo this year, the Twins managed two wins, but scored “just” 6 runs in 13 innings. On Wednesday night the Rochester Red Wings scored 9 runs against Seo who is now pitching for the AAA Durham Bulls. Denard Span, Tommy Watkins and Brian Buscher each had a home run against Seo.