The Twins of the last two nights have looked a lot like the Twins of April and May. Instead of getting timely hitting they’re grounding into a double play at every sign of a rally. The Twins tied the game at 3 on a Joe Mauer single in the 5th. Cuddyer followed up with a single, but with 2 outs the Twins weren’t able to add any runs. A 3-run inning from the Royals in the 7th put the Twins behind and double play balls in the 8th and 9th killed any hopes of rallies.

Jason Bartlett was a bright spot in the game for the Twins. He played stellar defense with at least 3 better than average plays at SS. He also scored 2 of the Twins 3 runs. Luis Castillo was also having a pretty good night until the ninth when he grounded into a double play.

The Twins hurt themselves on the basepaths as well. Justin Morneau hit a 1-out double in the 4th, but was tagged out on a groundball to short that was tossed to the third. Morneau likely expected the ball to get past Berroa and was trying to score from second on the play, so I don’t necessarily blame him for taking off. However, once he realised Berroa got to the ball, he just walked into the tag. There was no slide or effort to avoid being tagged. In the seventh, the Twins had runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1-out in what was still a tied game. Michael Cuddyer hit a weak grounder back to the pitcher and Castillo was thrown out by several steps at home plate—blowing another scoring opportunity.

The Twins are starting to lose the ground they worked hard to pick up over the 20 of 21 streak. They need to play better as they complete the first half of their season on the road in Texas this weekend. The offday on Thursday will be much welcomed, and the Twins should be happy to go into the All-Star break with a series victory in Texas. It’s really quite a downer when the Twins hottest streak in over a decade ends with a series loss to baseball’s worst team. Sure, seasons have their ups and downs, but he Twins have already had one big down period; they can’t afford another one.

Game Notes

• Mauer picked up his 42nd and 43rd RBI of the season.
• Brad Radke gave up 11 hits in 5 innings. Somehow that was limited to only 3 runs
• The Twins relivers Crain, Reyes and Rincon each gave up 1 run, all coming in the 7th inning.

Boof Bonser Demoted

Bonser was optioned to AAA Rochester after his poor performance on Tuesday night. The Twins will make a decision on a replacement before Friday’s game. It will likely be a relief pitcher with Pat Neshek seeming to be the most likely. There’s no decision yet on who will take the fifth spot. With the All-Star break approaching the Twins won’t need a fifth starter for a couple weeks which will give them plenty of time to make a decision. The two likely scenarios are:

• Put Kyle Lohse back in the rotation. This doesn’t seem to be popular with many fans, but realistically what should we expect out of a fifth starter. Lohse is inconsistent, but he’s proven that he can pitch at times. If we’re lucky, maybe he got all his bad pitching out of the way in the first couple months.
• Scott Baker could be recalled and perhaps have Willie Eyre go back to AAA to make room for him. Baker will likely be a member of the rotation at some point, but I don’t like the idea of him returning now. If the team didn’t feel he was capable of pitching here a month ago, then I don’t see any reason to rush him back.

Liriano Lead the Voting

Liriano is leading the voting for the final all-star vote. The voting closes on Thursday, so be sure to cast a few votes for him—the race is still close. You can find the ballot at twinsbaseball.com.