Section 219: Just when you want to get excited

Morneau down .. and if he's really back in six weeks I'll buy root beer for the house.

Delmon down ... and who knows for how long.

Middle infield reverts ... both in the field and at the plate.

Mauer goes .667 ... in games started on the road trip.

Just when you wanted to believe that the Twins were making their run toward the top of the AL Central, they lose five straight and drop again to the bottom of the division.

There's not much sophisticated analysis to do here: They played badly against teams where mistakes aren't forgiven. I'm still trying to decide whether it's worse to give the big bashers in the Milwaukee lineup extra chances to inflict damage or to watch Carlos Gomez have a big game against his old team.

No, that's not a backhanded way of saying that Gomez should still be here. Look at the numbers. He is what he is.

On a more macro level, it's the difference between the Danny Valencia's .311/.351/.448 offense as a rookie and his .216/.272/.359 numbers this year.

In other words, players with experience are needed to step up. And that isn't happening right now beyond Michael Cuddyer and, usually, the starting pitchers.

Now, it's clear that Morneau was playing at something less than 100 percent pretty much from Opening Day and with Mauer ... well, you can read so much more about that stinky stew elsewhere that I'm not wading in today. If you missed it, Jim Souhan's take on Mauer is worthwhile reading.

Delmon was putting up the worst numbers of his career before he got hurt and Casilla spent the last five games of the road trip starting to undo some of the good will he'd garnered during his hot stretch. Players stumble, but he needs to snap out of it quickly.

From the weekend reports, it sounded like Jason Kubel will be ready to return soon, and he'll need to come back and pick up the pace that set him apart from the others in April and May. Gardy can use Jim Thome as his DH now, which should be another upgrade. And there was optimistic talk about Denard Span, but I'll believe that when I see it, which I hope is soon.

The season isn't a lost cause. Twenty of the next 24 games are at Target Field -- with the other four being in Chicago, where the Twins have played like its a second home. The stretch on either side of the All-Star Game consists of a series apiece against the other teams in the AL Central, concluding with four against Detroit. By the end of that stretch, fans should know beyond any doubt how they should approach the rest of the season.

***

I misread the Jose Mijares-Mauer thing Saturday night in terms of Gardy's reaction. His initial comment was that Mijares shouldn't have thrown all fastballs to Prince Fielder. I blogged Saturday that Gardy seemed to be taking Mijares' side, but Gardy later pointed out what I had also said in the post -- that the pitcher has the final say and Mijares should have shaken off Mauer until getting the sign that he wanted.

More than anything, I suspect that Gardy was miffed that the whole deal became the story of the game.