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Before Wednesday's series opener in Baltimore, the Twins optioned struggling Alexi Casilla to AAA Rochester. Casilla hasn't been able to rebound at the plate since returning from the DL late last year after tearing a tendon in his right thumb. His defensive play has also been spotty, and his costly error in Detroit on Tuesday was probably the last straw.

Matt Tolbert was recalled to replace Casilla on the roster. Tolbert and Brendan Harris are expected to split the time at second base.

The season has technically started, but I think it's still early enough to fairly submit my predictions. Feel free to add yours to the comments.

With just a week to go until the start of the season on April 2nd, Sidney Ponson had his best start of the spring against his former team, the Baltimore Orioles. With 2 pretty bad outings and 2 pretty good outings this spring, Ponson has seemingly locked up a spot in the Twins' rotation along with Johan Santana, Boof Bonser and Ramon Ortiz. I expect Ponson to fill out the fifth spot of the rotation. Whether Carlos Silva or Matt Garza will get that fourth spot is yet to be determined, but I'd sleep a lot better at night if I knew it was Garza.

Scott Baker was coming off a pretty good start at Cleveland, but didn't fair so well on Saturday in Baltimore. Baker didn't walk anyone, but allowed 7 hits in 3 2/3 innings. He didn't get much help from his defense either as Phil Nevin, who was playing first, was unable to handle Jason Bartlett's low throw in the second inning.

With a four gamea lead over the White Sox and just 13 games remaining in the season, the Twins playoff hopes are as good as they've been all year. The Star Tribune accurately reported That if the Twins finish the season just 7-6 the White Sox would need to go 12-1 to overtake the Twins. Considering that 7 of the Twins remaining games are against Baltimore and Kansas City, the Twins hopes look even better. However, it's much too early to be satisfied.

The Twins have seemed to play their poorest baseball after off days, and Tuesday's series opener was no exception. The offense could only muster 5 hits against mediocre lefty, Mark Redman. This was following the 1-run performance on Sunday against lefthander Mark Buerhle, who has also struggled in the second half of the season. The White Sox victory over Tampa Bay puts the Twins back in second in the wildcard race—by 1/2 game.

It's become a common story for the Twins in 2006: shut down by a mediocre pitcher. Adam Loewen entered the Baltimore rotation on June 3rd and has never managed to complete 7 innings. He came into the game with a 3-4 record, a 6.12 ERA and a .369 opponent batting average. The Twins managed just four hits and one run through 8 innings against Loewen, but managed to tack on two runs against Latroy Hawkins in the ninth.

In week 10 the Twins lost a series in Seattle and won a home series against Baltimore for a record of 3-3. After a week of no offense, the Twins bats began to show some life by scoring a total of 36 runs through the 6 games. The offense was led by two grand slams from Michael Cuddyer, 3 homers from Justin Morneau and of course the hitting tear that Joe Mauer has been on the past month.

The Twins found themselves down 8-0 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning. Carlos Silva struggled in the first inning by giving up 3 runs, including a 2-run homer to Miguel Tejada. Silva then pitched 3 scoreless innings before allowing Baltimore to extend the lead by a run in each of the fifth and 6th innings. The recently recalled Kyle Lohse came on for the 7th and looked terrible.

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