Just about everything went right on opening day. In game two, just about nothing went right as the Twins fell to the Angels by a score of 9-1. Boof Bonser labored to get through six innings. It could’ve been worse—Boof left 3 runners stranded in scoring position.

Torii Hunter was presented with his 2007 Gold Glove before the game. On a related note, Delmon Young stretched a single into a double in the 7th inning, narrowly beating Hunter’s throw from the outfield.

The Angels bats didn’t stop when Bonser left the game. In total they had 15 hits in the game, which included 5 doubles and 2 homeruns. Shortly after Dick Bremer suggested that the Twins might have the best bullpen in baseball, they gave their worst showing of the season (get the joke?). Jesse Crain allowed a double in the seventh, threw a wild pitch and then intentionally walked Validimir Guerrero before Dennys Reyes came in to give up a single to Garrett Anderson, the only batter he faced.

Brian Bass made his major league debut, in relief of Reyes. He quickly got Hunter out to end the inning, but ran into trouble in the eighth inning when he allowed 2 runs (1 unearned).

Finally, Juan Rincon didn’t show any signed of improvement after a rough 2007 season.

Offensively the Twins didn’t get much done either. Their offensive struggles in the first two games can largely be attributed to the struggles of Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau in the middle of the lineup. Morneau is still hitless and Cuddyer had one hit yesterday, but also had a costly strikeout with 1 out and a runner on third in the opening game.

Game Notes

• Jason Kubel got the start at DH. He was 1 for 3.
• Delmon Young was 2 for 3 with a double. He’s batting .571 through the first 2 games.
• The Twins simply didn’t have a lot of baserunners in this game. They had 6 hits and just 1 walk.
• Rincon hit Hunter in the elbow with a pitcher. Clearly there was no intention though.

Looking ahead

The Twins will need to get their offense going, and a big part of that will be waking up Justin Morneau’s bat. He had a horrible end to last season followed by a pretty poor spring training.

Nick Blackburn is set to get the start on Wednesday night against lefty Joe Saunders. With Francisco Liriano working his way back to the majors, Blackburn will need to start strong to make sure he’s not the guy Liriano replaces at the end of the month—no pressure, Nick.