There’s not really much I can say besides rehashing what I’ve said the past few games. The Twins offense is failing to come up with timely hits and the middle of the lineup is in a slump. On Wednesday night Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau were both 0 for 4. The Twins have now lost 4 straight and haven’t surpassed 3 runs of scoring in five games. Odalis Perez, who came into the game with an ERA over 8 got a quality start and the Twins failed to score on what has been baseball’s worst bullpen.

Morneau in the last four game:

Date	AB	H	RBI
4/22	4	0	0
4/23	5	0	0
4/24	4	1	1
4/25	4	0	0

Coming into the game, the big story was whether it would be Sidney Ponson’s last start. It immediately looked like it would be when he allowed a 2-run homer to Mike Sweeney in the first inning to put the Twins in a deficit they would never overcome. He allowed another 2-run homer in the fifth inning to David DeJesus and ultimately allowed “just” those 4 runs through six innings. The start wasn’t overwhelmingly terrible, which leaves some doubt as to whether it was his last start, but it wasn’t good, and I think Ponson needed a good start to save his job. If he’s being replaced, we’ll likely know within 24 hours. Two possible replacements, Matt Garza and Scott Baker are due to start for Rochester again in the next couple of days, so a decision would need to be made in time for them to be held back for an appearance with the Twins.

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

Game Notes

• Alexi Casilla was picked off second in the eighth inning with Morneau at the plate and two outs. The way things have been going, I’m not sure it would’ve matter, but it was another mistake for Casilla after having some fielding trouble yesterday
• Dennys Reyes has been terrible this year. Once again he came in and allowed more base runners than he retired (1 hit, 1 walk, 1 out). Pat Neshek came into to clean up his mess, again. You have to wonder how long the Gardy is gonna keep sending Reyes out there.
• Torii Hunter provided most of the offense for the Twins with his 13th double and 4th home run of the season.

Boof Bonser has been the second-worst starter for the Twins this year and they’ll have to rely on him against Zach Greinke tomorrow afternoon (12:10 start time).

Rondell White Re-Injured

When Rondell White first went down with the calf injury several weeks ago he was only supposed to be out a few days. Then he went to the DL with the expectation that he’d be ready to go the first day he was eligible to come off. Now he’s re-injured the calf and could be out for another 1 to 2 weeks.

Considering the Twins’ lack of depth, they desperately needed to get him back in the lineup. Fortunately it sounds like Jeff Cirillo is healing much faster and could rejoin the team in about a week.