Well, blame them both, and a few other people too, for Saturday's 4-2 defeat at the hands of Kansas City.

My basic point: I could not believe that Matt Guerrier — usual suspect No. 1 in the usually suspect middle relief staff — was out there to start the seventh inning. But he was, and it didn't work, and for that Ron Gardenhire is responsible.

Back up to the sixth inning. I had no problem with pulling the plug on Glen Perkins after the fifth inning and 85 pitches. Even Bert "pitch 'em 'til their arms fall off" Blyleven appeared to be in agreement. Perkins has had too many meltdowns at just that point in his starts.

Nor did I have a problem with bringing in Boof Bonser and his 5.86 ERA (at the time) for the sixth. He's been bringing it of late, and he's got good stuff. Of the right-handed bullpen guys not named Joe Nathan, he might be the most trustworthy arm right now.

But he gave up four straight hits — some well-struck, some scratch — and was pulled with the score tied at 2, the bases loaded and nobody out.

In came this corner's favorite middle man, Craig Breslow. He struck out left-hitting Alex Gordon — and departed for Guerrier.

Now ... Breslow was used as a LOOGY — a Left-handed One Out GuY. in that case, I would have preferred to see Dennys Reyes or even Eddie Guardado get that out, because then Breslow would be available for a full inning later. Instead, Gardy burned one of his two most reliable set-up pitchers. I don't trust Guerrier; I'd rather have had Breslow stay in.

Guerrier got his two outs — John Buck and Mitch Maier (righty and lefty) — but on hard-hit balls.