Felix Hernandez Topic Page

The Twins managed a 2-1 series victory over the Cleveland Indians with a blowout 11-3 victory on Thursday afternoon.

The most encouraging aspect of the victory was Scott Baker's performance. While he's certainly had some good starts through the season, he's had more poor ones. On Thursday he managed to hold a decent Cleveland offense to just 2 runs over 7 innings while striking out a career-high 10 batters. He walked just 1 and allowed scattered 6 hits.

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.

Via Twins Now here are tonight's lineups. Delmon Young sits.

Minnesota Twins

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Michael Cuddyer, RF
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Jason Kubel, DH
6. Joe Crede, 3B
7. Carlos Gomez, CF
8. Mike Redmond, C
9. Nick Punto, SS

The Twins will host the Seattle Mariners tonight for the final season opener at the Metrodome in front of a sold out crowd. The Twins enter the season as the picks by many to win the AL Central, largely because division is relatively weak again this year.

It was an interesting game for the Twins. The Felix Hernandez hype was short-lived as he left the game early with soreness in his elbow. Hopefully it's not serious, but the whole event was eerily similar to Fransisco Liriano's departure of last season. The game also featured a crazy ending thanks to a little too aggressive base running from the Mariners.

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 high-powered Yankee lineup was no match for...Ramon Ortiz??? I fully expected another beating from the Yankees, but Ortiz stepped up big-time for the longest Twins start of the season. He allowed just three hits and a walk through eight innings. The Twins offense came around just in time with four runs in the eighth inning to give Ortiz the win. The first two starts of the season for Ortiz have been about as encouraging as possible.

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.

Through the 4-game series in Oakland the Twins scored just 4 runs, so it's no surprise they came out of the series with just one win. What's the cause of the offense slump? It's likely a number of things.

Friday's home game against the Seattle Mariners looks to be a fun time. Who cares if we're 12.5 games back as May winds down? Before the game starts Governor Pawlenty will sign the stadium bill and begin the countdown to April, 2010 (if it hasn't started already). This is one game I'd absolutely love to be at, but unfortunately the holiday weekend is calling me out of town. Ah well, television will have to do.