JUNE 8, 2009 -- OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 3

The Magical Mystery Tour continues in Oakland, where the Twins bats are again silenced for most of the night and the pitching does just enough to lose the game. The Athletics won their seventh game in a row, yet they hardly looked unstoppable, as a pedestrian lineup did the bare minimum to get past the Twins. Josh Outman cruised in five of his six innings, and his only hiccup was the fourth, when the Twins clawed for three two-out runs. Handing Anthony Swarzak a three-run cushion, Swarzak went out and followed Twins-on-the-road protocol to a tee, but giving up that lead as soon as humanly possible. I'm going to do some research on this today to see how many times that the Twins have given up a lead on the road in the next half inning, because it seems to be just about every time that they score, their opponents answer right back.

Swarzak was his own worst enemy in the fourth, as the A's scored three runs on just one hit: a bases-clearing double by ex-Gopher great Jack Hannahan. The bases were loaded compliments of two walks and a hit batsman, and if it were not for two spectacular defensive plays by Brendan Harris, the inning would have been absolutely disastrous. Ron Gardenhire's gameplan worked out well, though -- I think his goal in the game was to give Luis Ayala a loss, because he's been pitching deceivingly well of late and for all the suckiness that he's done so far this year that has not been acknowledged with defeats, he deserves one. Ayala delivered in the fifth, when the first pitch of the inning was belted 400 feet off the bat of Jack Cust. The 4-3 score at that point did not change, as the Twins haplessly collected five measly singles against rookie Outman and the bullpen.

I could go in detail about the Twins patheticness at the plate, but it's safe to say that the Twins on the road are one of the worst offensive threats in baseball. We're getting a daily reminder on this road trip that the Twins' power surge in May was a fluke, as they've yet to hit a home run in the first four games of the road trip and only have a handful of doubles. Especially when you don't get two-out hitting with runners in scoring position, it's really hard to score runs and win games, and it's no surprise that the Twins are 1-3 (lucky to be 1-3, really -- their lone win on the trip was a 2-1 victory) and have scored a grand total of eight runs in four games. Michael Cuddyer was at it again on Monday, grounding into double plays late in the ballgame in clutch situations. Justin Morneau took the collar, striking out in all three at-bats against Outman. Brendan Harris' 12-game hitting streak came to an end, though his defense no doubt saved a few runs -- it's really sad to say that Harris' status as an everyday player is in jeopardy because of Nick Punto returning from the DL on Friday. If ever there was a manager in baseball that would bench a hot hitter and a good defender (as good as Punto) in favor of the worst hitter in baseball and an average fielder, it's Ron Gardenhire. Expect Punto to be in the lineup the second he comes off the disabled list, and Harris may have to shift to second base in order to remain playing. Speaking of twelve-game streaks, Seldom Young's twelve gamer stretched to thirteen -- not a hitting streak, of course, but a strikeout streak; yep, that's a whole baker's dozen games consecutive with a strikeout. Absolutely unacceptable.

Something has got to be done about Joe Crede, too. It seems that every other day now Crede has been out of the lineup with some minor injury. We knew that coming into the season Crede's back was a big question mark, but it really hasn't been the back that has forced Crede out of the lineup. One day it's a hamstring, then it's his knee, then his hand -- Crede just might be the most fragile player I've ever heard of. It's not like Crede is a helluva ballplayer -- he hits .230 with a little pop -- but considering the other options for the Twins (Matt Tolbert, Alexi Casilla, Brian Buscher), Crede being out of the lineup is disastrous for the Twins. Either Crede needs to work with the strength and conditioning team to get his body in full working order or the Twins need to DL him and get him some rest. Right now Crede's a guy who seems only able to play about four games a week. That means that guys like Tolbert and Buscher and Casilla are playing way too much for the Twins to call themselves a true contender.

I few days back I did a rudimentary report card for Carlos Gomez and I gave him an A- for his fielding. Let's drop that down to a B, as Gomez' terrible play in the field on Hannahan's double perhaps cost the Twins a run. Hannahan's hit wasn't going to be caught, and Gomez took about the worst angle he possibly could, and let the ball roll to the wall. Had Gomez stayed in front of the ball and cut it off, he probably would have held the third runner from scoring. In all honesty, Gomez probably was just giving back the run that he earned in the top half of the inning, when Gomez unexpectedly walked with the bases loaded. It wasn't a difficult walk, as all of the pitches were well out of the strikezone, but that sort of thing (Gomez getting RBIs) just doesn't happen very often, and he seemed determined to give that run right back in the field, and he accomplished that in spades.

The way the offense is running right now, it's going to be very very hard for the Twins to win a game here in Oakland. Scott Baker pitches tonight against the A's -- if ever there was a time for Baker to step up and stop the bleeding, it's right now. If I'm Gardenhire, I start to panic right about now. This road trip has the makings of a long losing streak, and the look on the player's faces is not one of determination. They seem to be taking the losing in stride, and if I'm the manager, I get in their grill and lay the smack down. You don't lose games like this to subpar teams like Seattle and Oakland, and you don't have this much of a disparity at home versus on the road. Good teams play consistently well no matter the venue, and this version of the Twins, at this point, appears to be a sub-.500 team.