Good riddance to the Brew Crew.

The Twins got a lead to their best relievers after six innings, but the Brewers once again took it to the Twins' bullpen to win the season series 4-2. Three of the losses to the Brewers were given to Twins relievers.

Today, the main goat for the Twins was Casey Fien, who has been very good all season when he's been healthy. After Blaine Boyer allowed a two-out run-scoring single in the seventh inning of a 1-0 game, Fien gave up a pair of two-run homers to Ryan Braun and Adam Lind. Fien did not retire a batter. While it was certainly a bad outing for Fien, it was also a rare one for Fien, who had been just about as good as Glen Perkins this year, according to FIP. Prior to this game, Fien had only allowed 1 HR and 6 runs all season. Since coming off the DL on May 29, Fien had allowed only 1 run in 12 1/3 innings with an 11/1 K/BB ratio.

The bullpen woes led to a great outing by Tommy Milone being wasted. He dominated for 6 shutout innings with 7 strikeouts and just 2 hits and 3 walks allowed. His outing could have been longer if not for Hernan Perez singling after a 10-pitch at-bat with two outs in the second inning. A walk to the No. 8 batter followed before the inning ended with the pitcher flying out to right field. No runs scored that inning, but that forced Milone to throw about twice as many pitches in that inning as he did in the other five innings. It might not have made a difference since Milone's spot in the order came up with two runners in scoring position and two outs in a one-run game in the top of the seventh, so manager Paul Molitor might have pinch hit for Milone regardless, but with Milone at 99 pitches instead of about 85, I'm sure he didn't even entertain the thought of leaving Milone in the game.

The move worked out poorly as Eduardo Nunez got out to end the inning and then Boyer, Milone's pitching replacement, couldn't hold the lead.

The Twins did make some noise in the 9th with Torii Hunter hitting a two-run home run, his third long ball in two games, with no outs and pinch hitter Shane Robinson reaching on an error with two outs to extend the game. That brought up Danny Santana as the tying run. Kennys Vargas was still on the bench and could have pinch hit for Santana. It would have meant Robinson taking over in left field, Escobar at short and the next reliever replacing Vargas. However, Molitor chose to stick with Santana, who managed to flair a single to left field with two strikes. That brought the Twins' best hitter, Brian Dozier, to the plate as the go-ahead run. However, Dozier inexplicable took a fastball down the middle at the knees for strike three to end the game.

The Twins decided to "celebrate" Father's Day, the first day of summer and Junior's Half-Birthday with another efficient loss. If you're going to give up 8 runs, you might as well do it on a day you're shut out.

I don't think there's much question that Jake Arrieta had it going on Sunday. He didn't give the Twins much of a chance to score. However, the Twins have scored 3 runs or less in 6 of their last 7 games and 12 of their last 15 games. It's not been pretty.

The good news is the Twins continue to get good starting pitching. Kyle Gibson racked up a lot of pitches due to spotty command, but he managed to give up just 2 runs in 5 innings. This marked the eighth straight game that Twins starters have allowed no more than 3 runs. Also good news is that Gibson has a 38-13 K-BB ratio over his last 42 2/3 innings (7 starts).

More good news was that Byron Buxton finally got his first hit at Target Field. It was just a single with two outs and none one in the eighth inning of an 8-0 game, but hopefully, it will help him relax and start to have better at-bats and leave a better impression with management before Aaron Hicks is ready to come off the DL. Buxton also reached on an error, which mean he reached base four times (including 2 walks) in the last two games, so CF hasn't been a main reason the Twins scored just 2 runs total in these games.

The drop in offense has been so sudden and dramatic, it's difficult to see the Twins waiting much longer to try to help the pitching out. The Twins do have some internal options (Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia, Danny Santana or Max Kepler) but unless the Twins are willing to play Eddie Rosario every day in CF, I'm not sure any of them will have much of an effect right now. Sano did hit a pretty dramatic home run on Sunday and Kepler is batting over .340, but Buxton's first taste of the big league's shows that there are no guarantees no matter how highly rated a prospect is, especially when they've never played in AAA. Arcia had a couple hits on Sunday, but he's still just hitting .200 since recovering from his injury. Santana is batting over .370, but the Twins might want to wait a little longer to make sure that he's ready to come back up.

The other good problem the Twins have is that they have 5 starters pitching well and will most likely will be needing to move 2 of them out of the rotation within a few weeks. Ervin Santana appears to be on track to return from suspension July 5. Ricky Nolasco appears to be avoiding surgery on his ankle for now, but no timetable has been set for him to return. However, when he does, he most likely will be put back in the rotation given his contract and his veteran status.

This will probably not be looked upon favorably by Twins fans, but the end result is the Twins have a logjam that they will need to figure out. After the bullpen meltdown today, my guess would be the temporary solution would be to put Trevor May and Tommy Milone in the bullpen and demote Aaron Thompson and Michael Tonkin. However, the Twins could make a more permanent solution by trading at least one starting pitcher for a left-handed bat. The most likely candidates for trade would by Mike Pelfrey and Milone, given their contract status and age. Milone isn't exactly old, but he doesn't have the upside or the raw stuff of May and Gibson. Pelfrey and Milone also aren't saddled with long-term contracts like Phil Hughes, Santana and Nolasco.

The Twins may wait until they have a better idea of when Nolasco will return before they pull the trigger on a deal. At the very least, I don't think it will be long before Thompson is demoted unless he starts to show dramatically better results. I also hope the Twins will drop the 13th pitcher so they can bolster the bench and allow Molitor more options to squeeze out some more runs from the anemic offense.