JUNE 4, 2009 -- MINNESOTA 11, CLEVELAND 3

The Twins had their hitting shoes on Thursday, as they went deep four times against Fausto Carmona and the Indians en route to an 11-3 romp. Jason Kubel was the hitting hero for the Twins, belting two three-run home runs in his first two at-bats of the game. Six RBIs for Kubel in the first two innings -- it appeared that Kubel had a good chance of matching or breaking the club record for ribbies in a game (8, by the unlikely pair of Glenn Adams and Randy Bush). Eric Wedge had the nads to intentionally walk Kubel in the eighth inning with runners on second and third, when the Twins were up by seven runs. Such a bush-league move for a classy manager -- for all the griping I do about Ron Gardenhire, I don't think even The Brain would do something as low as that.

Scott Baker pitched fantastic for the first four innings on Thursday, then hit a rut in the middle innings, which is settling into the norm for Baker. He ended up with a career-high ten strikeouts on the afternoon, and the only real blemish on his line was giving up a home run to a guy named Chris Gimenez, who was starting his first major-league game. Sean Henn pitched a clean two innings to complete the ballgame.

The bottom of the Twins lineup, which has been an Achilles heel for the team so far, continued their struggles, as the vaunted 7-8-9 hitters -- Mike Redmond, Carlos Gomez, and Matt Tolbert -- combined to go 1 for 12. Tolbert especially had a terrible approach at the plate, seeing eight pitches total in his four at-bats. It's becoming increasingly clear that Tolbert does not belong in the major leagues, and with Alexi Casilla the only other option the Twins are willing to use at second base, the Twins appear to be doomed at the position. It's not as if the organization is very strong in the minor leagues as well (Danny Valencia and Luke Hughes are natural third basemen). It's a glaring hole that needs to be addressed, and soon. The defense at the position is really disheartening, as that was the main reason that Gardy was willing to put the offensively-challenged Casilla and Tolbert there in the first place. They've both been underwhelming defensively and consistently phone it in at the plate.

The Twins now embark on a three-city, ten-game road trip that could spell doom for the club. The first stop is Seattle's Safeco Field, which surprisingly turned out to be a house of horrors last season for the team. Though the Mariners have cooled off considerably from their good start, the Twins appear to be behind the eight-ball with the pitching matchups in all three games: Felix Hernandez, Jerrod Washburn, and Eric Bedard. Factor in the Twins' miserable record on the road (6-16) and taking just one game from the M's this weekend might be a godsend. The Twins will be sending Francisco Liriano to the hill again tonight. If he contributes another messy four-inning, five-run performance, it's going to be hard for Ron Gardenhire to allow Liriano to stay in the rotation. It would be easy for other managers to take a guy with a 2-7 record and a 6.60 ERA (fourth-worst in the league) out of the rotation, but we're talking about Ron Gardenhire; time and experience has taught me not to expect logic and wisdom out of The Brain.