Ouch

Well, that was ugly.

In yesterday's post, I struggled to find beams of light in a dimming season for the Twins. But it's getting tough to come up with excuses for this team.

Last night, they were blown out at home by the last-place Kansas City Royals, who rank dead last in the American League in runs per game. The Twins managed just one run over five innings against Kyle Davies, who entered the game with a 3-8 record and and 6.37 ERA, while Nick Blackburn coughed up six runs -- four earned -- on six hits before being yanked with one out in the second inning.

In his past 30 innings of work, Blackburn has now surrendered 27 earned runs (an 8.10 ERA) on an astounding 53 hits while managing only nine strikeouts. That's the sign of a pitcher who is getting absolutely dominated and who probably doesn't belong in a major-league rotation. The problem is that the Twins currently have three starters who have demonstrated that they deserve demotions from the rotation, and yet there exist no legitimate options to replace them.