DETROIT -- April has often been a difficult month for Brad Radke throughout his career. With a 4.49 ERA in the month over 12 years, facing adversity early in the season is nothing new for Radke.

But trying to remember an April as difficult as the one he has just gone through is almost impossible for the veteran pitcher.

"This one was pretty rough," Radke said. "I think it's probably the roughest one I've had. I just have to keep battling away and hopefully find that rhythm that I'm looking for."

Radke surely wasn't able to find that rhythm on Friday, as he delivered what clearly was his worst start yet of the season. He lasted only 2 1/3 innings, allowing six runs on nine hits, as the Twins fell to the Tigers, 9-0, at Comerica Park.

Friday's outing just continued a month's worth of struggles for the veteran right-hander. Over the month of April, Radke has given up a total of 26 runs in five outings. He has yet to make a quality start after recording 18 in his 31 starts last season.

"It's frustrating for me, and it's also frustrating for the guys, too," Radke said of his performance. "I want to go out and do my best and get this team on the right track. Just glad it's the end of April, maybe I can turn over a new leaf here in May."

But Radke's outing wasn't the only disappointment on Friday, a night when nearly everything went wrong.

The Twins offense recorded a total of only six hits and put runners into scoring positions four times the entire game. There were missed plays on defense and nothing seemed to happen to help the team find a rhythm.

Minnesota had only one real scoring threat, and it came in the third with one out and runners on first and third. But the threat ended quickly as Rondell White grounded into a double play. White's groundout began a streak of 11 consecutive plate appearances the Twins had without hitting a ball out of the infield.

"We had a really bad night tonight, all the way around," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That was just a lousy game by us. We got behind early and just kept adding on. We missed plays, didn't swing the bats great and just had a lousy game."

While it was a rough game in many aspects for the Twins, the most difficult part was seeing Radke struggle to turn things around. The Twins have counted on Radke for a long time, and to see him so clearly frustrated Friday night was tough.

Radke got into trouble early, loading the bases with only one out in the first. Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillen then hit a sacrifice fly that scored Detroit's first run, making it 1-0.

Radke (2-3) allowed a solo shot to Marcus Thames in the second to make it 2-0 before really finding trouble in the third. He loaded the bases again, this time with no outs, and then gave up a three-run double in the gap to Guillen. One out would be recorded on the play as Guillen was caught in a rundown between second and third, but Radke would then give up another solo blast to Chris Shelton to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead.

"You could tell he got frustrated after the big one out there in the gap, where he gives up three more," Gardenhire said. "You know he's frustrated and then he makes a couple more pitches up and they hit a couple of bullets off him. So he's just frustrated right now. He makes a good pitch, they hit it, makes a bad pitch, they hit it. It's just not working out for him right now."

April hasn't been a good month for any of the Twins starters, but the three who have drawn concern are the ones who haven't seemed to get things turned around -- Kyle Lohse, Carlos Silva and Radke. All three pitchers have ERAs over 8.00 and have not proven they are righting the ship.

Despite so many problems for the pitchers, Gardenhire wants to make one thing clear -- the team is not looking to make any changes to the rotation in the near future.

"Radke is going to be in the rotation, Silva is going to be in the rotation, Lohse is going to be in the rotation and we're just trying to get them through it," Gardenhire said. "We're in the first month of the season, so you've got to keep giving these guys the ball. What they've done around here and how well they've done around here for such a long time, you just have to keep giving them the ball."

Radke has announced that 2006 will be his final season on the mound, which has made his struggles difficult to watch for his teammates.

"I've been with Brad forever, I've known him 13 years, and it's tough to see him go through this," Torii Hunter said. "He's such a great guy and it might possibly be his last year. To see him go through this, this early, we know he can still make a good comeback. And that's what we're banking on."