Scott Baker's season had been a disaster coming into Friday night's series opener against the Seattle Mariners. He started the first 2 weeks on the DL with shoulder soreness and then gave up 4 or more runs in each of his first four starts, not making it out of the fifth in two of those. On Friday night, he finally had a good start, going 7 full innings while allowing 0 runs on 5 hits and no walks.

He also got a lot of offensive support, with the Twins' offense providing a season hight 4 home runs in the game. Brendan Harris started the home run action with a 3-run shot in the 2nd inning that extended the Twins' lead to 5-0. In the fifth inning, the Twins hit 3 home runs, the first time that has been done since by the Twins since 2002. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau went back-to-back with solo homers and Brian Buscher provided the second 3-run homer, and his first of the season, later in the inning.

Joe Nathan was called upon to secure an eleven run lead in the ninth inning. Obviously, he was just being brought in to get some work in after not having pitched since May 2nd. Typically I'd be critical of Gardy for his under-use of Nathan, but other than May 3rd, there wasn't much of a situation where it made sense to use Joe. This past week the Twins have had a rain-shortened game and a couple lopsided scores.

Game Notes

• Buscher got the start at 3rd base with Joe Crede sitting out with a sore hamstring.
• The Twins had 13 hits (6 for extra bases) and 5 walks in the game.