Late night: Mariners 5, Twins 2

Scott Baker walked two and fanned
eight Monday in six innings.

Game story here.

Box score here.

Nine straight losses for the Twins. I didn't see any of this one, and quit listening in the sixth after the Twins failed to get anything out of a bases-loaded, two-out situation.

Scott Baker wasn't bad, but he gave up a couple of homers, and Michael Pineda is impressing a lot of people. Prince Michael on Monday, King Felix Hernandez on Tuesday -- the Twins certainly caught no breaks in the Mariners rotation for this two-game series.

Phil Dumatrait -- that's Du-ma-trey -- made his Twins debut. He gave up no hits but walked two and allowed a run. His first 1.1 innings would fit right in with the season work of Jose Mijares (11 walks in 11.2 innings), whose roster place he took.

Mijares went on the DL with a sore elbow; I get the impression that the Twins regard this soreness as an excuse for Mijares' poor pitching this season, not as a reason for it. They were hoping that he'd step up to a bigger role this season; he has been unable to meet his previous standards. He represents a piece of the collapse.

Replacing Mijares and Jim Hoey in the pen with Dumatrait and Anthony Swarzak appears to give Ron Gardenhire this set of roles:

Closer: Matt Capps
Setup 1: Glen Perkins
Setup 2/MR 1: Joe Nathan
LOOGY: Dumatrait
MR2: Alex Burnett
Long man 1/ MR 3: Kevin Slowey
Long man 2: Swarzak