The Twinks got back into the win column with a 4 - 3 win over the Kansas City Royals tonight. Scott Baker got his first start of the season and pulled out a win. Scott threw  84 pitches in 6.2 innings giving up 3ER, 7H, 0BB with 2 strikeouts. Manager Ron Gardenhire said Baker was getting his pitches up early leading to the 2 runs in the first and another run in the second for the Royals. Baker was able to make adjustments though and got stronger as the game went along while getting his pitches down in the zone. Baker cruised facing only three batters in each of the next 4 innings. Baker faced 2 batters in the seventh before Neshek came in for relief. This first outing for Baker was very encouraging after battling  a sore back and extended bout with the flu in spring training and not getting many starts. What was especially encouraging was seeing him get stronger in the middle innings.

In the 4th inning and the score tied 3 - 3 the Twins pulled off a suicide squeeze to take the lead. Mike Lamb was on third after a double and advancing to third on Matt Tolbert’s sacrifice bunt. Then with Adam Everett at the plate Lamb broke for home as the Royals’ left handed pitcher John Bale delivered a fastball. Everett was able to deliver with the sac bunt allowing Lamb to score safely.

The Twins played a nice game and it included the following highlights (and lowlights):

• Carlos Gomez continued his hot start going 2 for 3 with a double, 2 stolen bases and a run scored and increased his batting average to .450.
• Joe Mauer went 2 for 4 with 1RBI and 1R while increasing his average to .375.
• Michael Cuddyer went 2 for 2 before leaving the game with an injured hand after sliding into third. Reports were that he suffered a laceration to his hand and a dislocated right index finger. He is day to day until they figure out had bad it is.
• Justin Morneau got his first hit of the year and a RBI to go with it when he singled and knocked in Joe Mauer. On a sour note Morneau also grounded into 2 double plays.
• Pat Neshek pitched to one batter in the seventh and had a perfect 8th inning striking out Mark Grudzielanek to end the inning.
• Joe Nathan gave up 1 hit in the ninth to Billy Butler after getting the first two outs on a pop out and ground out, then he struck out Mark Teahen looking to end the game and collect his second save of the year.

OK, maybe I was a bit corny and predictable on my headline, how many other articles around town will have a similar squeeze play angle on the headline?

boxscore   gameday

The Twins rotation for opening day became clear after Francisco Liriano’s last spring start on Friday and Scott Baker’s minor league start on Sunday.  Ron Gardenhire announced Francisco Liriano was optioned to the Twins Class A Fort Myers to start the season. Francisco pitched well on Friday throwing 73 pitches in 5 innings with 7 strikeouts, 2 base on balls, and 3 hits, one being a homerun. Kelly Thesier wrote in her article that Francisco is expected to make one start in Class A, make a start for Class AAA Rochester, then maybe join the Twins. Gardy wants to get Liriano up to throwing around 100 pitches. It will be interesting to see if Francisco does join the Twins after two starts or if the Twins will wait to see which of the starters isn’t making the grade over the month of April.

Scott Baker pitched well enough in his minor league start on Sunday and will jump on the end of the Twins rotation and start the series against Kansas City. In his start Baker threw 71 pitches over 6 innings giving up 6 hits, no walks with 3 strikeouts. Baker should be able to get more strength back after his extended bout with the flu by the time he makes his first start,

The Twins will start the season with Livan Hernandez, Boof Bonser, Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker.

Scott Baker made a start in a minor league game today and threw 49 pitches in 3 innings. Word was that he was not real sharp and labored a bit but Joe Christensen had an update relaying the news that he made a big enough step to stay off the DL and hopefully get in a minor league start on Sunday. This could enable him to hop on the end of the rotation for the regular season.

Baker is coming off an extended bout with the flu and a sore back and has not pitched in a Grapefruit League game since March 8th.

Will keep you posted….

Scott Baker’s sore back is going to keep him out longer than once thought. Ron Gardenhire said Scott would not be able to make the start in a minor league game this weekend as they had hoped. It all started in the Boston game on March 3rd he felt a tweak in his back. During his next start against Pittsburgh, Baker experienced tightness in his back and they shut him down after two innings and decided to have Nick Blackburn get the next start in Baker’s place.

This doesn’t sound like a major injury but Joe Christensen has quotes of coaches saying things like:

"Pitching coach Rick Anderson “says if this goes on for another week or so, we’re going to have to start making other plans,” Gardenhire said. “That’s what we’ve got to find out, whether, it’s going to push on.”

Hopefully he just misses the one start and can come back for the next one. Will keep you posted.