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Anthony Swarzak put together a decent start, allowing 3 runs through 6 innings, but the offense couldn't get much going against Josh Beckett on Thursday. Jason Varitek's 2 solo homers against Swarzak and a close play on a sacrifice fly in the seventh were enough for Boston to win this one.

Beckett struck out the first 4 batters he faced, before Joe Crede hit his 9th home run of the season. Crede had just returned from missing 3 games with a bruised hand. The Twins ended up with just 5 hits and struck out 10 times on the day.

The Twins won their first game of the season against Boston. Nick Blackburn provided 7 strong innings, striking out a season high 7 batters while allowing just 2 runs (1 earned).

Blackburn is now 4-2 on the season with a 3.55 ERA. He's gone 7+ innings in 6 of his last 7 starts, making him the Twins' most consistent pitcher right now. Kevin Slowey has also been pretty good, with 3 straight quality starts. He'll pitch tonight against Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has struggled this season and missed some time with shoulder issues.

It's hard to believe, but Sunday night's game was the first multi-homer game for the Twins of the season. Not by one player, but for the whole team. In fact, the Twins had 3 homers. Craig Monroe had a 3-run shot in the second inning and then what proved to be a game winning solo homer in the seventh.

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.

The Twins have had an up-and-down past couple of weeks. They struggled against KC and Cleveland before looking pretty good last weekend against Detroit. They went on to lose the final two games of the series against Tampa Bay. The toughest stretch of their schedule so far begins this weekend against the Red Sox. Boston comes to the dome with the best record in the AL at 18-9.

The Twins will start off a 6-game road trip with a stop out west to face the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners literally got off to a slow start this season when they were forced to sit around in Cleveland for an entire weekend as games got postponed. None of the four games were able to be played. They were also postponed on Thursday in Boston. When they've been able to play they've been up and down. The Mariners have lost by lopsided scores such as 9-0 and 14-3 and they've recently had lopsided victories against Texas (8-3 and 14-3).

The Twins, with some help from Boston, extended their lead over the Chicago White Sox in the AL wild car race. Detroit's loss also moved them to within 4 games of the Central leading Tigers. The Twins open up a 4-game series against the Tigers on Thursday.

Week 11 was a good week for the Twins. They got good pitching from their starters and bullpen and the offense came up with big hits when they needed them. The week started off with a sweep of a pretty good Boston ballclub and ended with the sweep of a not so good Pittsburgh team. The biggest positive from the weekend series was the Twins ability to win 3 straight on the road where they have struggled mightily this year.

Boston's pitching pretty much handed the game to the Twins on Wednesday night. Boston issued 10 walks and hit a batter in the game. The Twins had at least one baserunner in every inning but the eighth. The Twins could've actually scored a few more runs in the game. Matt Clement walked the bases loaded in the 3rd and was showing that he had no control. Hunter, for some reason, opted to swing at the first pitch he saw and hit into an inning-ending double play.

MLB.com reports: