The Twins offense is now officially in a slump. They haven’t managed to exceed three runs scored in the past three games, all three of which came against poor to average pitchers. On Tuesday night the Twins dropped the second game of the 2 game series against Cleveland despite the fact that they had ace Johan Santana on the mind. The Twins rely heavily on the guys in the middle of the lineup, mainly Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. Over the past three games the two have combined to go 4 for 24 with just 2 RBIs. This isn’t meant as a knock on Morneau and Cuddyer–everyone is entitled to a slump from time-to-time, it’s meant to indicate that with guys like Jason Tyner, Nick Punto, Jason Bartlett and Alexi Casilla batting at the ends of the lineup, the offensive relies almost exclusively on the RBI production of Cuddyer, Morneau and Torii Hunter behind Joe Mauer, who is always on base.

A quick glance at Santana’s stats for the night might indicate that he had a rough outing, but I didn’t think he pitched too poorly. Cleveland was efficient with its scoring and the defense wasn’t as good as it could be. Alexi Casilla, in particular, had a poor night in the field. His hesitation on a throw to home in the fourth inning allowed Victor Martinez to score by a narrow margin. It would’ve been the second out of the inning and probably cost a run. It doesn’t show up as an error in the record book, but the double-clutch cost a run. Casilla also made a throwing error after fielding a bun by Grady Sizemore. Trying to beat the speedy Sizemore, he threw the ball much to hard (from a close distance) past Morneau. The error didn’t lead to any runs for Cleveland.

Santana should be given credit for getting the Twins through 7 innings and getting the ball to Matt Guerrier who took it the rest of the way to give the rest of the bullpen a night of rest. After winning his first three games of the year, Santana has now taken losses in the previous two starts. Unusually, Santana plunked two batters in the game–Victory Martinez in the 1st inning and Travis Hafner in the seventh. The second caused an umpire visit to the mound. When a guy like Santana hits two batters in the game, I think it’s fair to say there was some intent involved. I like Howard Sinker’s take:

Johan looked royally pissed on the mound, and I think the plunkings weren’t directed at Cleveland as much as they were directed toward his teammates as a message:

Get fired up.

Full Box	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Indians	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	1	0	5	8	0
Twins	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	3	8	1

Game Notes

• Jason Kubel led the Twins offensively with a 3 for 4 night at the plate. He drove in a run in the ninth, but by then it was too late.
• Tyner, Bartlett and Casilla combined to go 0 for 10.
• The Twins’ record dropped to 11-9 enabling both Cleveland and Chicago to move ahead of them in the AL Central standings. It’s the first time of the year that the Twins haven’t had at least a share of first place.