Twins fall 6-1 to Felix Hernandez and the Mariners.

‘King’ Felix silenced the Twins bats for eight strong innings, and Ken Griffey Jr and Franklin Gutierrez each hit a HR to power Seattle in the last Twins home opener at the Metrodome.

Francisco Liriano went an otherwise strong 7 innings in his first career opening day start, but 2 of the 4 hits he allowed were the HRs.  The combined efforts of Jesse Crain, Craig Breslow, and Matt Guerrier allowed 2 insurance runs to cross the plate in the top of the 9th, and Hernandez finally gave way to Miguel Batista in the bottom half to seal the victory.

In the early going Hernandez appeared to injure his right ankle, but despite favoring it the remainder of the game, he fought through it and maintained his dominance in opening day starts. 

He struck out six and allowed only the one run after a bases loaded single from Michael Cuddyer, his first hit in 15 attempts against Hernandez, in the home half of the 5th inning.  The only rally the Twins offense was able to muster was quickly doused however, as Justin Morneau grounded the next pitch into an inning ending double play.

Observations:

-Liriano settled down after pitching through the opening jitters.  But in about the 5th inning the ground outs started turning into hard hit fly balls, and it seemed hitters were actually sitting on his slider.

-CF Carlos Gomez may surpass Torii Hunter in his ability to cover ground, but he still doesn’t play the wall like he did.  With that said,  hell of an effort on a ball 95% of all MLB outfielders, wouldn’t even of had a chance at.

-Its only one game, but lets hope the bullpen performs better tomorrow.  Uneventful inning from Luis Ayala though, 1 out 4 aint bad…

-Didn’t like Delmon Young on the bench for this matchup, but then again, the guy I would have sat down was Denard Span, and he was arguably the Twins top offensive performer.

-What the heck was with Russell Branyan’s bats?  One shatters and gives Catcher Mike Redmond a nice wack to the jaw (when does something odd NOT happen to Mike?), then the next one splinters and goes flying at the heads of fans.  If they were maple (which it looked like they were from the way the bats broke, the barrel and handle splitting into clean cut half’s), it will add to the banning debate.  From personal experience, I don’t like swinging maple bats.  They say they add a little pop, but the sweet spot also seems to shrink, leading to less consistent contact.  And oh ya, they are prone to the inadvertant stabbing/blunt-force projectile throwing.

Around the Week’s Matchups:

-In the absence of Ichiro Suzuki, on the DL because of a stomach condition, Endy Chavez will bat leadoff for Seattle.

-The major story surrounding the Mariner’s opening week is the return of Ken Griffey Jr. How he has changed since starting his career as Seattle’s phenom, what he should and should not do on the field in his return, and the memories of his past accomplishments with the franchise.

-With their home opener postponed due to cold weather and snow, White Sox Coach Ozzie Guillen tells his player’s: “If they want to play in nice weather, you better move to Miami.”

-Chicago Tribune writer, Mark Gonzalez, dishes out his preseason awards.

-In keeping with the trend around the league, the White Sox are utilizing some clever humor, and spoofing known favorites in their 2009 advertising campaign. I’ve always looked forward to the new Twins spots (TC bear one is hilarious), cool to look into another teams.

-RH Mark Buerhle has been tabbed to pitch in his franchise record tying 7th, opening day start.

‘Til next time, Go Twins!