Last night’s defeat was excruciating on so many levels. A number of random thoughts that occured to me during and after the game:

- The sheer futility of the Royals against Blackburn (who pitched well, don’t get me wrong) stunned me, even after watching 8 losses in a row. The 3-pitch inning he had…well, enough said. The Royals’ hitters (most of them, anyway) literally will almost swing at anything right now. Really, it all boils down to this. I got up to use the bathroom at some point last night after the Twins had been retired. When I returned (just a minute or two later) there were already two outs! Insanity.

- Although I’m not one to lead the “Fire the manager!” parade, I must admit that, like some of you, I’m starting to lose confidence in Hillman as a tactician. I saw a number of moves that left me scratching my head. How, even with a roster like ours, just how can you let Pena and Gathright bat repeatedly in big spots late in the game, with bench players (each of whom would be an upgrade, of course) available to pinch hit?

The last inning was the worst for me. Butler gets on, and then is pinch-run for by Gload (thereby eliminating him as a pinch-hitting option, our best remaining one). I fully understand that Butler is a slow runner, ideally not the guy you want on base when trying to get the tying run home. But using Gload here of course meant that Gathright had to hit for himself (and of course make the last out)! I’m not naive; I know that our personnel/depth basically stinks, and in the 12th inning the options were rapidly dwindling, but isn’t that all the more reason not to waste the few “bullets” (believe me, I use that term loosely) that you do have, trailing by a run in your last at-bat? I’d much rather take my chances that Butler will score the tying run on a Gload extra-base hit than hoping for a pie-in-the-sky scenario of Gathright driving in Gload with a big, game-winning extra-base hit.

- Was Grudz unavailable due to injury or illness last night? If not, how can Hillman explain letting him sit from the 9th inning on?

- What else can one say about Pena? He is absolutely killing us, time after time, at the plate. His at-bats end so quickly, it’s almost funny.

- To end on a positive note, Teahen played a very good game. He looked good defensively at 1B. and perhaps his inside-the-park HR will somehow get him going (we can only hope).