Good morning from Minneapolis,

This cannot keep happening.

Or else the bullpen the Padres built for the postseason might not be worth a darn come October.

For the fourth consecutive game, the Padres were into their bullpen way too early last night.

This time, it was with no one outs and two on in the fourth inning that manager Mike Shildt had to walk out of the dugout to get Nestor Cortes.

“It’s very important to go deeper in games as starters, and I think we’ve got to do a better job of it,” Cortes said after the Padres’ 7-4 loss to the Twins. “There’s no excuse. I can say for myself, I hate getting pulled early, and I wish I could be out there for the fifth and sixth inning and give my team a chance to win and save the bullpen a little bit.

You can read in my game story ( here )

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