Game 1 (Opening Day!!!) - at Baltimore

[chavez]

You usually see one good pitch an AB - if it happens to be the first one you better be hackin' I've seen a some guys (Morneau, Parmelee come to mind) taking 2-0 cock shots. We need to be a little more agressive. It's not like we are drawing bunch of walks.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

Duenslinger! Well, that's something encouraging.

[Intramural Legend]

Rally time!

[chavez]

I'll take about 30 more of them Josh!!

[Intramural Legend]

The season has started!! I'll take it. It may not be the Twins best season ever, but at least I get to watch Sportscenter highlights that have more than basketball dunks.

[nicksaviking]

Good luck finding Twins/Orioles highlights on Sportscenter. If it isn't NY, Boston, LA or Miami, they just don't care. Pavano and Arrieta could have had dueling perfect games into the 10th and it still wouldn't lead Sportscenter if the Yankees played that day.

[Seth Stohs]

Not to be lost, Carl Pavano was very Carl Pavano-ish start. Solid. Jake Arrieta was just unhittable..

[Fanatic Jack]

Jake Arrieta was just unhittable!!!! I wonder if that will happen vs Rays, Yanks, Red Sox, or Angels?? The guy is #3 pitcher at best and as usual the Twins came in and were scared vs AL East team. Talk to me in 6 weeks when Arrieta is taken out of the rotation. How many times have we seen throughout the years the offense make a mediocre nobody look terrific.

[Intramural Legend]

Not to be lost, Carl Pavano was very Carl Pavano-ish start. Solid. Jake Arrieta was just unhittable..

4 Runs in 7 innings is solid? Granted, one of the runs should have been an out, but still.

[Intramural Legend]

BTW...welcome Fanatic and Seth...nice to see a few more people here for a game thread.

[Thrylos]

Not to be lost, Carl Pavano was very Carl Pavano-ish start. Solid.

Solid? 7 IP, 5H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1K, 95 pitches, 55 strikes (5.14 ERA). Fastball averaging 83-85 and occasional 86 and one 87. From your opening day starter. I'd say a pretty mediocre start, like usual for Pavano. Very Carl Pavano-ish start indeed. Solid not that much.

 

Duensing was solid, on the other hand

[Intramural Legend]

Good luck finding Twins/Orioles highlights on Sportscenter. If it isn't NY, Boston, LA or Miami, they just don't care. Pavano and Arrieta could have had dueling perfect games into the 10th and it still wouldn't lead Sportscenter if the Yankees played that day.

True, but I'll take a routine ground out to Jeter glorification highlight over another crappy dunk

[John Bonnes]

Not to be too pie-in-the-sky, but it was a close game and a couple of plays one way or the other decided this one. Two hits in the fifth inning that were tagged right at outfielders, that stretch play in the eighth that could have just as easily been called "safe," Doumit's delmonic play in right field. I don't think there are a lot of big truths that can be taken away from this one.

 

(And I'll admit - I feel a lot better about it than the crap show Opening Day game from last year versus the Jays....)

[twinsnorth49]

Solid? 7 IP, 5H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1K, 95 pitches, 55 strikes (5.14 ERA). Fastball averaging 83-85 and occasional 86 and one 87. From your opening day starter. I'd say a pretty mediocre start, like usual for Pavano. Very Carl Pavano-ish start indeed. Solid not that much.

 

Duensing was solid, on the other hand

I don't think 5 hits over 7 is all that bad, the home run was a mistake and made worse by the previous walk, he kept them in the game, made some good outs and took the game to the 8th, about what you'd expect. . If Doumit makes the catch that most decent outfielders make then it's conceivable it goes to extras.

Not sure why Carl is getting dumped on here, the offense didn't show up until it was too late, Pavano was neither very good nor very bad, his velocity will come up a bit in a short time, it was never all that good anyway.

 

I liked Duensing's peformance, Gray on the other hand......

[Thrylos]

Not sure why Carl is getting dumped on here,..

7 IP 1K, all balls in play. Add a couple of walks (both scored) add a gopherball, add a slow FB and that's the problem. Not horrible, just mediocre. And yes that Doumit/Span play could had been made. On the other hand, Pavano could have gotten a K or 4.

[Guest USAFChief]

I might have missed a few, but I recall one swing and miss at a Pavano pitch on the day. He sat mid- to low-80's on his "heater," topping out at 87 I believe. This wasn't a even a good offensive team he faced today, and there were consistently good swings off him all day, from inning one. If Pavano were the Twins 5th starter, holding a spot while a nice prospect puts the finishing touches on at AAA until coming up in June, that would be one thing. Pavano was the Twins opening day starter. Think about that. That's a failure of the organization.

[twinsnorth49]

7 IP 1K, all balls in play. Add a couple of walks (both scored) add a gopherball, add a slow FB and that's the problem. Not horrible, just mediocre. And yes that Doumit/Span play could had been made. On the other hand, Pavano could have gotten a K or 4.

All true, but my point is he wasn't any more responsible for the team losing than the guys who swing the bats, and I don't see many comments about the endless parade of rollers back to the mound and lazy fly balls that most of the guys served up.

 

Sure he could have used a few more K's but he didn't get raked all over the yard and found a way to get guys out. I will concede that the O's inability to take advantage had as much to do with it.

 

I predict the guys let it rip tomorrow and Sunday and we take the next two.

[John Bonnes]

I'll agree with TWinsNorth49 - if we're going to point fingers, the majority should be pointed at a heavily left-handed lineup that could do absolutely nothing against a right-hander who sported a 5.05 ERA last year.

[Billy Bremner]

How could the Twins lose today? Didn't Joe Benson have a good spring in Florida?

[Guest USAFChief]

Perhaps a game thread is the wrong place for this point, but I'll forge ahead anyway. While I agree the offense today was a problem, I believe the team took reasonable steps over the past half decade, and the past winter, to put a reasonable every day lineup on the field. They signed Mauer--which most of us would agree they should have done--it's now on Mauer to produce like a 3 hitter. They signed Morneau. They added some bats over the winter. They attempted to add to the middle infield, etc. I don't think that today was a good representation of what the offense will look like over 162 games. At least I hope not, given health, etc. But I can't say the same about the pitching. A philosophy that leads to Carl Pavano being the opening day starter, multiple times, is a flawed philosophy. Deeply flawed. Carl Pavano led the lead in hits allowed last season, and that's our #1 starter. I want some guys that can miss some bats. I want some pitchers that other teams fear. I want this organization to stop trading Billy Bullocks for Scott Diamonds. I want them to stop picking the Terry Doyles of the world when they have the #2 pick in the rule 5 draft.

[Thrylos]

I'll agree with TWinsNorth49 - if we're going to point fingers, the majority should be pointed at a heavily left-handed lineup that could do absolutely nothing against a right-hander who sported a 5.05 ERA last year.

That comment was not about pointing fingers. It was as a response to Seth who said that "Pavano had a solid performance"... My point is that he did not.

[Thrylos]

Perhaps a game thread is the wrong place for this point, but I'll forge ahead anyway. While I agree the offense today was a problem, I believe the team took reasonable steps over the past half decade, and the past winter, to put a reasonable every day lineup on the field. They signed Mauer--which most of us would agree they should have done--it's now on Mauer to produce like a 3 hitter. They signed Morneau. They added some bats over the winter. They attempted to add to the middle infield, etc. I don't think that today was a good representation of what the offense will look like over 162 games. At least I hope not, given health, etc. But I can't say the same about the pitching. A philosophy that leads to Carl Pavano being the opening day starter, multiple times, is a flawed philosophy. Deeply flawed. Carl Pavano led the lead in hits allowed last season, and that's our #1 starter. I want some guys that can miss some bats. I want some pitchers that other teams fear. I want this organization to stop trading Billy Bullocks for Scott Diamonds. I want them to stop picking the Terry Doyles of the world when they have the #2 pick in the rule 5 draft.

Agreed. But to stop doing that, this team has to a. hire new front office people from outside and b. get rid of all the existing FO and Field management staff (at least at the MLB level). This is something that they are not willing to do even after 99 loss season. The replacement of Smith by Ryan is like spilling food on your shirt and putting it on inside out to hide the fact...

[Neinstein]

Agreed. But to stop doing that, this team has to a. hire new front office people from outside and b. get rid of all the existing FO and Field management staff (at least at the MLB level). This is something that they are not willing to do even after 99 loss season. The replacement of Smith by Ryan is like spilling food on your shirt and putting it on inside out to hide the fact...

I'm enjoying your "dirty laundry" reference. ...and it's Ryan wearing Smith's inside-out shirt.