• Game 1 Recap
• Game 2 Recap
• Game 3 Commentary & Recap

The Twins dropped the final game of the series with the Blue Jays. The game recap can be seen in the scoreboard area.

Hopefully the Twins have worked out some of the rust from their pitching staff and they’ll be ready to go for the important 3-game series against the Cleveland Indians. The Twins have caught a break in that C.C. Sabathia, the Indians’ ace, was put on the DL after pulling a muscle in the season opener against the White Sox. Instead the Twins will see the following matchups, in order.

Kyle Lohse (MIN) vs. Paul Byrd (CLE)

Paul Byrd is a solid starter who can give his team the chance to win every time out. He pitched 200 innings for the Angels last season and had a 12-11 record and 3.74 ERA. He had a 1-1 record in 3 starts against the Twins last season, but went at least 7 innings in each of those starts.

Kyle Lohse was the Twins’ best starter in spring training, and he’ll be trying to prove that spring training means something. The Twins starters have struggled thus far, so it’s up to Lohse to get them on the right track.

Scott Baker (MIN) vs. Jason Johnson (CLE)

Baker looked horrible in his last spring start against AAA Rochester. He didn’t make it out of the second inning and gave up 10 runs. It’s cause for concern, but Baker was solid in his starts last season, so hopefully he can at least give the Twins a chance to win.

Jason Johnson is another mediocre starter. He’s never posted an ERA below 4 and only once had a winning record (1999 with Baltimore). The Twins should be able to get some run support for Baker off of Johnson. The Twins faired pretty well against Johnson last season, as seen in the table below.

IP	ER
0.1	5
7.2	3
6.2	5
4.0	6
6.0	3

Johan Santana (MIN) vs. Jake Westbrook (CLE)

Santana will hope to bounce back from a disappointing first start. Santana on a bad day still gives that Twins a chance to win and it’s hard to imagine him having two bad starts back-to-back.

Westbrook had a good start against the White Sox earlier in the week, giving up 2 runs in 6.2 innings and picking up the win. Westbrook is a solid pitcher, but doesn’t matchup well with Santana. This is a game that the Twins should win. The Twins were 3-2 against the Indians when Westbrook started last season.

The pitching matchups setup pretty well for the Twins. Baker is a concern for me, but the Twins should (ideally) still take 2 of 3 from the Indians, so a strong performance from Baker would be a bonus.

The Cleveland bats were good enough to score 16 runs off an excellent White Sox pitching staff, so the Twins are certainly going to need the bats to show up this weekend.

Off-topic

• Are the Tigers ready to compete in 2006? They’re atop the division after 3 games and they’re hitting homeruns like it’s All-Star eve. Of course, I could probably hit a homerun off a knuckleballer who’s knuckler isn’t knuckling and they did get their first two wins against the Royals.
• Jimmy Rollins’ hit streak ended yesterday at 38. I was getting a kick out of all the media hype: “could he break the record?” Did anyone really think he would extend the steak longer than a few more games?

Bartlett Watch

Jason Bartlett was 2 for 4 with a double, a triple, and 2 runs scored in the season opener forAAA Rochester. There’s no word yet on how his “leadership skills” were in the game.