Carlos Gomez stole two bases and scored two runs while going 2 for 3 with a walk. His hits included a double and a bunt single where he did a Punto slide (head first) into first base. We know Nick Punto is hard-headed when it comes to the first base slide thing, I wonder if Carlos will continue to do the first base slide thing after Gardy talks to him.  Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer also had stolen bases giving the Twins four for the game.

Livan Hernandez was the other player of the game going 7 innings throwing 84 pitches while giving up 2 earned runs and 0 base on balls with 1 strikeout. Livan did not dominate but he was very effective, only really getting into trouble in the 5th where he gave up the 2 runs. Twins fans have been hard on the Livan signing and piling on with Livan’s rough spring training. It will be interesting to see if Livan can pull a strong season out of the hat like Carlos Silva did last year after a very poor spring.

Other key plays of the game included:

• Joe Mauer knocking in Carlos Gomez in the first
• Delmon Young stole 2nd and scored on a single by Mike Lamb
• Michael Cuddyer singled driving in Carlos Gomez
• After striking out the first batters he faced and giving  up a double, Pat Neshek whiffed Vladimir Guerrero to end the 8th inning
• Joe Nathan struck out Torii Hunter in the ninth for the second out of the inning in route to closing out the game for  the Twins first win of the season

gameday boxscore  photo gallery

Livan Hernandez had a tough outing in today’s Twins win 8-7 over the Baltimore Orioles in a Spring Training game at Hammond Stadium. Livan’s line was

• On a positive note Delmon Young is heating up going 3 for 3 and getting his average up to .615. Delmon also knocked in 2 runs.
• Craig Monroe saw action today again after sitting out much of this early spring with a sore calf muscle. Craig went 2 for 2 and drove in 2 runs also.
• Alexi Casilla stole his 4 base of the spring and went 1 for 2 bringing his average up to .333

Check out todays boxscore of the Twin 8-7 win over the Orioles.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported this morning that the Minnesota Twins have signed pitcher Livan Hernandez to a one year deal worth 5 to 6 million dollars plus performance based incentives possibly adding another million or so to make the deal worth the 7 million he made last year. Livan who pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year will be 33 this season and will provide a veteran presence for the Twins young pitching staff.

The Good: Livan has pitched over 200 innings in each of his last 8 seasons. He eats up innings and has produced double digits in wins in each of these last 8 seasons. Bringing in a proven veteran can the pressure off the young Twins staff who really have no clue what the starting rotation will look like this year.

The Bad: Livan’s contract that may hit 7 million is no drop in the bucket. A 7 million dollar contract puts him only behind Morneau, Cuddyer and Mauer and just above Nathan. The Twins payroll is low this year with the departure of Santana, Hunter and Silva, but is that smart use of money for a team that many don’t think will contend?

The Ugly: In the past three years Hernandez’ stats have dropped in an ugly way.

• Wins have dropped from 15 in 2005, to 13 in 2006, and 11 in 2007
• ERA has increased from 3.98 in 2005, to 4.83 in 2006, and to 4.93 in 2007
• Home Runs allowed have increased from 25 in 2005 (.9 hr/9ip), to 29 in 2006 (1.2 hr/9ip), and to 34 in 2007 (1.5 hr/9ip)
• Strikeouts per 9 innings have decreased from 147 in 2005 (5.38 k/9ip), to 128 in 2006 (5.33 k/9ip), and to 90 in 2007 (3.97 k/9ip)

So does this mean the Livan Hernandez experiment for the Twins is likely to end up like the Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson experiments of 2007? Livan’s sliding stats sure point that way. But I guess it depends what the Twins are looking for. If they are looking for wins and someone to lead them to the Central Division Championship I think are they mistaken. If they are simply looking for someone to take the pressure off the youngsters, eat up some innings, and provide some veteran leadership, they may get that but at a very expensive price tag. I’m guessing this spending of money will take some of the heat off the Twins for the low payroll this year and PR wise with the masses it may work for the Twins if Hernandez can pitch 200 innings. But I’m also afraid it would have been wiser to stick this $5 to $7 million in the bank and save it for 2010.