Denard Span Topic Page

The Twins won the opening game of their series against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday. All 7 of their runs came in the first 3 innings, and were helped considerably by Milwaukee errors and miscues in the field.

Francisco Liriano's struggles continued. He got the win, but struggled to get through 5 innings with 117 pitches thrown. He allowed 7 hits and 5 walks to Brewer hitters. He came up with big inning-ending strikeouts in the 4th and 5th innings, which prevented what could have been more damage.

The Twins have been shuffling things around a bit the past few days as they deal with injuries and struggling players. Here's a rundown of what's happened.

On Friday the Twins activated Nick Punto from the DL and optioned Alexi Casilla to AAA to make room. It was the second time this season that Casilla has been demoted.

On Saturday the Twins optioned Anthony Swarzak to AAA right after his 7 shutout innings against the Cubs. The Twins recalled catcher Jose Morales to take his place. With several hitters on the DL and the fact that Joe Mauer is often being used as DH on his offdays, Ron Gardenhire wanted to have a 3rd catcher. The move brought the Twins' pitchers down to just 11. Morales has not played in either of the 2 games since being recalled.

The Twins returned to Minneapolis after their 20-1 blowout of the White Sox and handily swept the Milwaukee Brewers in the first weekend of interleague play. The streak of wins was thanks to a combination of good starting pitching and a pretty dangerous offensive lineup.

Ron Gardenhire moved Joe Mauer to the #2 spot, which makes for a typical middle of the lineup of Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Joe Crede. Considering Denard Span is a quality leadoff hitter, it's pretty tough to go 1-6 through this lineup.

Here's how the five outfielders stack up in terms of plate appearances and starts at various positions. The leaders for each column are highlighted.

Please click "Read More" to view table.

Down 5-3, and with Carlos Gomez at the plate with 2 outs and 2 strikes, it seemed clear that the Twins were headed to an 0-2 start against the Seattle Mariners. However, Go-Go drew a walk from Seattle Closer Brandon Morrow and Kubel and Buscher followed up with walks themselves. Denard Span brought the Twins within a run with his third single of the night and then Casilla poked a single into center field to score the tying and winning runs, in walk off fashion.

The Twins opened the final season in the Metrodome with a 6-1 loss to Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners. Hernandez and Francisco Liriano dueled through the first five innings, but the game began to deteriorate in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Twins turned a bases loaded, no outs, situation into just 1 run after Justin Morneau grounded into an inning-ending double play.

In the sixth, Franklin Gutierrez slipped a 2-run homerun just past the outstretched glove of Carlos Gomez in center field, and a sloppy bullpen surrendered two more runs in the ninth.

It wasn't an all-bad night. Liriano actually pitched well, despite a few costly mistakes. 3 of his 4 runs surrendered came on long-balls, but he still made it through 7 innings on just 93 pitches. He allowed just 4 hits and 0 walks.

The Twins came just shy of the postseason last year, however made very little moves in the offseason to make the team better. It's clear that they're counting on growth from within to make this team contend in 2009.

Looking to improve this year.

Michael Cuddyer struggled through injuries last season. While he was rehabbing a hand injury, he was struck by a ball and broke his foot. The string of bad luck limited him to just 279 plate appearances, hafter surpassing 600 in each of the previous two years.

The Twins game today against the Phillies was televised on FSN and I got a chance to watch a large portion of it. Tomorrow's game is also televised (WFTC29).

I thought I'd interrupt the steady stream of projections posts to recap what's been happening down in Florida.

The Twins drafted Ben Revere as their first pick (28th overall) of the 2007 amateur draft. He's straight out of Lexington Catholic HS in Kentucky and is described as a speedy guy with a light bat.