Minnesota Twins: Opening Day Notes

How sweet it is! Scorecard in hand, I diligently listened to John Gordon call this Opening Night win on the radio Monday night, and enjoyed every minute of it.

A nice victory for the Twins, and a great performance from nearly every player. Let's take a look at how some people did Opening Night...

Livan Hernandez

What a great showing from our ace, huh? He went a solid seven innings, and only allowed two runs on seven hits.

He had great location early on, struggled in the fifth inning, then re-gained his form to close out his night. He didn't walk anyone, and had one strikeout. The bummer is that we have to wait five days until he pitches again.

Pat Neshek

Following up a great Spring Training, Neshek struck out two straight in his appearance in the eighth, but allowed a bloop double to Gary Matthews Jr. He followed that up by striking out the ever dangerous Vladimir Guerrero. What a showing. I shouldn't have to wait long to see some more of him.

Joe Nathan

Nathan averages 40 saves per season in the last four years, and showed us why he is so good tonight. He had the chance to show former teammate Torii Hunter his stuff, and struck him out swinging.

Nathan allowed one hit in the ninth, but ended the game by forcing a ground-out to short from Kendrick.

Carlos Gomez

And I thought that he wouldn't be effective at the lead-off role. Boy, was I wrong. Gomez led off the game with an extremely long double down the left field line, and later scored off Joe Mauer's single.

Gomez beat out a bunt-single in the third, and drew a walk in the fifth. After that walk, Gomez stole second and then scored on a Michael Cuddyer single. He had a total of two stolen bases on the night. Wow.

Brendan Harris

Gardenhire loves this kid, and now I think I have a little idea as to why. Harris had two hits in the game, one a gift double.

He did struggle in the eighth when he had the bases loaded for him with one out, and he struck out swinging.


We are now 1-0, and lead the Tigers by one in the AL Central. While there's nowhere to go but down, it feels pretty good to be on top of the world.