The Twins Lose 2 out of 3 to Open 2011

Game 1: Friday April 1

Boxscore

I wish this boxscore was an April Fool’s joke, but unfortunately the Twins were the ones that looked like fools on Friday.

Despite his strong finish last season and the way he looked in Spring ball, Carl Pavano did not come out firing on all cylinders.   Pavano pitched four innings (faced two in the fifth), giving up 8 runs (7 of them earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks.  He did manage to strike out 3 batters, but unfortunately he also gave up 2 home runs.

Not that it matters, since the Twins didn’t do much scoring Friday, but Pavano got very little help from the bullpen, either.  Manship gamve up 2 runs of his own in the 5th, and Hughes gave up 3 more in the 8th.

The Twins only offense of the day came in the 7th inning as they got back to back to back RBIs from Valencia, Casilla, and Span.  The Twins went 2 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Game 2 : Saturday April 2

Boxscore

Saturday went only slightly better for the Twins as they lost game two by a score of 6 to 1.

Again they had trouble with their starting pitching as Liriano only made it through 4 and a third innings, giving up 4 runs on 4 hits and 5 walks.  Francisco couldn’t seem to find the strike zone very consistently.  Like Pavano, he did manage to get 3 strike outs in his 4 innings, but also like Pavano he gave up 2 home runs in the process.

Kevin Slowey worked out of the bullpen on Saturday.  He did give up one run in 2 and 2/3rds, but later Skipper Ron Gardenhire said it wasn’t really Slowey’s fault… instead it was a miscommunication with the fielders.

Justin Morneau gave the Twins their only run in the game, driving in 2nd basemen Nishioka in the 4th inning.

Game 3: Sunday, April 3

Boxscore

Sunday looked much better for the Twins (and us Twins fans) as the Twins seemed to get on track a little better with both their pitching and hitting.  Nick Blackburn took the mound for game 3, pitching 5 and 2/3rds innings, giving up 2 runs (only 1 earned run) on 6 its and 1 walk.  He struck out 2 and gave up 1 home run.

Both Danny Valencia and Denard Span hit homers for the Twins.  Valencia’s was Minnesota’s first of the year, a 1 run shot in the third inning.  Denard Span’s came in the 9th off of former teammate Jon Rauch.

Joe Nathan got his first save of the year, and his first since 2009.  His performance made a few fans a bit tense as he gave up 1 run off of 2 hits and two walks, but he managed to get the job done in the end, giving the Twins their first win of the 2009 season.

Post Series Thoughts

Well, it’s a good thing we only have to play the Blue Jays a few times during the season.  Minnesota makes Toronto look like a World Series level team lately, and this series was no exception.    In three games the Jays took the ball deep 5 times.

Minnesota’s hitting hasn’t seemed to grab on just yet either.   Justin Morneau has started the season off at 1 for 10 at the plate, Denard Span is 1 for 12, Danny Valencia is 1 for 10, and Joe Mauer is 1 for 7.

Obviously it’s WAAAAAAAAY too early to read anything into that, but the Twins will not survive many series when these guys aren’t hitting.

Carl Pavano Signs A Two Year Deal

Good news for Twins fans as Carl Pavano signed a two year deal with the Twins.  It looks like the Twins starting pitchers and starting lineup are

probably in place now, which means that Twins management can feel a little less pressure when they look around to see who else is available to them.

Image via Wikipedia

The Twins seem to be a little lacking in the bullpen with the loss of Jon Rauch, Jesse Crain (right when I was starting to finally like him),  Brian Fuentes, and Matt Guerrier.

The signing of Pavano helps, though, since the Twins officially have six starting pitchers on their roster with Pavano, Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Brian Duensing, and Nick Blackburn.  One of those pitchers will likely get moved the the bullpen, which will leave the Twins with a backup plan should one of their starters have to miss a game.

I’m pretty happy that Carl “The Mustache” Pavano will be in Minnesota for the next couple of years.

Rangers Beat Twins 4-0

Boxscore

Nick Blackburn had his first Major League start in over a month Monday night as he faced the Texas Rangers.  He officially gave the Twins a quality start, going 7 innings giving up 3 runs on 8 hits.  He struck out 5 guys and didn’t walk anyone.

Unfortunately for Blackburn, he was facing Rich Harden, who was on fire.

Harden threw 6.2 innings of no-hit baseball against the Twins.  He gave up 5 walks, but the Twins weren’t able to capitalize on any of the free base runners.  Harden was taken out in the 7th inning after racking up 111 pitches.  The thing that probably saved the Twins from Harden going longer into the game was that he was missing the strike zone on 44% of his pitches.

What wasn’t good for the Twins is that the Rangers bullpen also seemed to be on fire.

If it wasn’t for Joe Mauer getting a 9th inning hit, the Twins would’ve gotten no-hit for the game.

But despite the fact that the Twins managed one hit on the night, they still found themselves with runners in scoring position during 4 separate at-bats.

Hopefully the Twins will be able to give Pavano some more support tonight.

The Twins are going to rest Francisco Liriano for a couple extra days this week.  He was scheduled to be up tonight, but manager Ron Gardenhire thinks that his struggles over the last couple of games are probably due to a “dead arm”.

This tends to be the time of year that starting pitchers can get worn out, and the fact that Liriano pitched about 50 games in Winter ball probably adds to the tiredness.

Nick Blackburn will take the mound instead.  Blackburn was shipped down to AAA a few weeks back after having several straight bad outings.  Blackburn seemed to find his stuff again while in the minors, so he’s going to be brought back up.

Originally Brian Duensing was put into the starting rotation to replace Blackburn.  Duensing has been pitching very well, though, and the Twins are likely to want to keep him in the rotation.

During the weekend, though, Kevin Slowey hurt his throwing arm and will have to be placed on the DL.  For now, Blackburn will take Slowey’s place in the rotation.

Duensing and Pavano were offered extra rest as well, but neither of them felt like they needed it at this point, which allowed Liriano to get a total of 3 extra days.  Liriano was greatful for the extra time.

The current pitching rotation will look like this:

• Carl Pavano
• Brian Duensing
• Francisco Liriano
• Scott Baker
• Nick Blackburn