After facing the Yankees’ trio of Sidney Ponson, Mike Mussina and (likely) Darrell Rasner, the Twins will get Thursday off before facing old friend Carlos Silva on Friday at the Metrodome.

You think Sunday’s loss at Kansas City was frustrating for the Twins? Silva has one win in his past 20 starts. He is 4-13 with a 5.93 ERA. He also is in the first year of a four-year, $48 million contract.

Silva tore into his teammates after Friday’s loss to Tampa Bay. You can hear the comments at this link from Geoff Baker’s blog in the Seattle Times. An excerpt:

Maybe half of the team wants to do the best they can. Take the starting rotation … every time we cross that line, we want to do our best. No matter how many games we are behind. But maybe half of the team doesn’t have that mentality. They are only thinking of finishing strong. And to put up their numbers. That’s great, but that affects us. As a team, that doesn’t work out.

… Maybe Chief has to go and grab somebody from his neck and throw him into the wall and something’s going to change. I’m very close to doing that, so write that down.

Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said he was “very disappointed” by Silva’s comments, mostly because Silva was talking to the media and not to his teammates directly. Riggleman did add:

I admire him more for doing it when he’s 4-13, to tell you the truth. If you’re 13-4 and you’re saying stuff, it’s kind of like, ‘I’m going good so I can say anything I want.’ At least he’s speaking his mind when he’s struggling, so I admire him for that, but again, whether it’s when you’re struggling or when you’re going good, you just don’t do it publicly.

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