The Athletics came into the dome riding the momentum of series victories over the Yankees and Mariners, but the 4-run lead they established early in the game wasn’t enough to hold off the Twins. In front of a sell-out home opener crowd, the Twins recorded their second victory of the season.

Brad Radke had his normal early game trouble, giving up 3 runs in the second inning and a solo homerun to Bobby Crosby in the top of the 3rd. The Twins answered back in the bottom of the 3rd with 6 runs.

Shannon Stewart started off the rally with a single. Luis Castillo followed up with a double to left field and Joe Mauer singled to drive in both Stewart and Castillo. Rondell White and Torii Hunter each caught a break with lazy fly balls finding the ground in the outfield. Mauer scored on Hunter’s hit to bring across the 3rd Twins run. Tony Batista capped off the scoring with a 3-run homer over to left field.

In the fifth inning, Justin Morneau added what would become a very important insurance run with a solo blast into the upper deck in right.

Jesse Crain was brought on in the 8th and gave up the second homerun of the night, a 2-run shot, to Eric Chavez. The 7-6 score set up a difficult first save opportunity for Joe Nathan. Besides the walk to Mark Kotsay, Nathan looked strong in recording his first save of the 2006 season.

Game Notes

• Joe Mauer was impressive with his agressive baserunning. He made it from 1st to 3rd on White’s bloop hit in the 3rd where it seemed that only Mauer was certain it wouldn’t be caught. He also aggresively stretched his hit in the 4th into a double.
• Tony Batista was everything we hoped he would be tonight. He hit the big 3 run blast in the 3rd and hit one off the baggy for a double in the 8th.
• After his usual rough start, Radke settled in nicely and became the first Twins pitcher to make it through the 7th this season. He gave up 6 hits, 3 of which were homeruns. For the second straight start Radke got some great run support.
• Good defense on the right side of the infield prevented a couple Athletic hits. Morneau slowed one down for Castillo and Radke was at first to receive the throw from Castillo. Later in the game Castillo ranged far to his left to snag a ground ball.
• Everyone on the team, except Juan Castro, had a hit today.

Elsewhere

• Jason Bartlett was 1 for 4 today for AAA Rochester. His batting average through 4 games is .333. He made a fielding error today, his first of the season.
• Mike Sweeney was injured late in the Royals-Yankees game today after getting hit in the hand by Mariano Rivera. For a team that’s already bad, this is a devastating loss.
• Cleveland won again today against Seattle and Kansas City blew a late lead against the Yankees. Detroit and Chicago were off today.