Twins lose opener & Tidbits

Hello everyone. Yesterday afternoon, the Twins lost their first Spring Training game of the season against the Cincinnati Reds, 6-1. Glen Perkins and Rickey Barrett both gave up 3 runs apiece as the offense was nearly non-existent in the first game of the Grapefruit League Season. Scott Baker pitched 2 scoreless innings and Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Casey Daigle and Julio DePaula all added a scoreless inning of relief of their own.

Besides the pitching being fairly strong besides two appearances, the offense was "dead" for pretty much the entire game. Joe Mauer chipped in with a single, as did 4 other players. Carlos Gomez went 0-2 in his debut for the Twins. However, he did make a diving catch from center field on a short fly ball by Ryan Freel of the Reds. Gomez covered a lot of ground on that play and he definitely showed his speed/range is as good as advertised. Jason Pridie came in later in the game and went 0-2 as well.

Tonight, the Twins play their first game back in Ft. Myers against Diasuke Matsuzaka and the Boston Red Sox. I'm sure there will be a horde of media outlets at the game, so we'll see how some of our young players handle the attention (which won't necessarily be on them). Boof Bonser is set to start for the Twins. Besides that, I'm not sure who else is scheduled to play. I'm expecting to see a little bit of a mix from yesterday's lineup with guys like Justin Morneau, Delmon Young, Adam Everett, Nick Punto, Mike Redmond and Denard Span, but your guess is as good as mine.




• Peter Gammons who I generally am not enthused about reading, mainly because of his bias of being a Red Sox fan and his love for larger market teams, and despite his connection to the Red Sox, he had a good piece on Torii Hunter in his blog yesterday. One part of the article that I particularly liked was:

A "bad" contract to a good and generous man is worth a great deal more than a "good" contract to a mediocre and selfish man.

Hunter has been known as being an outspoken player who plays with a lot of heart and energy. And it's good to hear about all the good things he does for people who aren't as privileged as some of us are. I also like Hunter's response of "I say, 'Do something'" in response to players complaints of only 8 percent of the Major League's players being African American.

I don't always agree with Hunter on the things he says, and the way he does things, but he truly is a good guy and I think there should be more players like him in the league.

• Make sure to check out the new Twins-Territory.com! I got the privilege of checking it out a couple days ago and they truly did a great job with the new site. I recommend everyone checking it out.