SARASOTA — Some quick thoughts from the Grapefruit League opener:

(*) Before the game, Ron Gardenhire confirmed that the team tentatively plans to keep two catchers (Redmond and Mauer) and 12 pitchers on the 25-man roster.

(*) Joe Mauer delivered the first hit of the Grapefruit League season, working a seven-pitch at-bat against Red starter Matt Belisle and hitting a seeing-eye bouncer up the middle.

(*) And we’ve seen the first suspect defensive play of the spring, a missed chance at a 5-4-3 double play. Ryan Freel made a nice takeout slide at second base, and third baseman Mike Lamb made a good feed, but second baseman Brendan Harris pulled first baseman Garrett Jones off the bag at first.

A cynic in the press box blurted, “Nick Punto has just won the Twins’ starting second baseman’s job.” Well, there are 360-some innings still to go this spring, so stay tuned.

(*) Fourth inning update: I believe Mauer has seen 13 pitches in two at-bats. Freel robbed him of a hit last inning with a diving hit in the left-center gap.

(*) Scott Baker allowed no runs on three hits over two innings. He got two double play balls, and the Twins converted one. Harris got the job done this time.

(*) Carlos Gomez is 0-for-2 as the leadoff man. Neither at-bat was pretty. He took a called third strike from Josh Fogg in the third inning. Gomez made a diving catch to end the third inning. Freel broke his bat and hit a pop up that looked like it might drop in shallow center, until Gomez turned on the burners. After making the grab, he stayed hunched over for a minute, and appeared to have the wind knocked out of him. He’s fine.

(*) Mike Lamb lined out to shortstop with two aboard in the second inning. He just drilled a leadoff single off Kent Mercker (lefty vs. lefty) to start the fifth.

(*) Matt Guerrier needed about five pitches to breeze through the third inning.

(*) Jerry Gil just hit a three-run homer off Glen Perkins. In Perkins’ defense, Joey Votto had just singled on a ball Jason Kubel lost in the sun, and Gil’s home run was hit into a stiff breeze blowing out to right field.

(*) Jolbert Cabrera just hit a two-run double off LHP Ricky Barrett, stretching the lead to 5-1. Another run came home on an error by 3B Matt Macri.

FORT MYERS — Francisco Liriano said he hopes to pitch in a Grapefruit League game by Monday or Tuesday.

He will throw another bullpen session Friday, “and then, I think I’ll be in a game,” he said. “Probably Monday or Tuesday.”

Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson cautioned that the team will take a wait-and-see approach, depending on how Liriano feels. Anderson said the next step after Friday’s bullpen session would be live batting practice, which suggested it might be later next week before Liriano saw game action.

“There’s no timetable on anything,” Anderson said. “We’ll just see how it goes. As we see him progressing, then we’ll keep moving forward. … He’s eager to do it [pitch in a game], but we’ve got to keep the harness on him a little bit.”

As for Liriano’s session today, Anderson said, “He was comfortable. It was such a cold morning, we didn’t want him to do a whole lot. He didn’t seem tentative. It was nice and easy.”

FORT MYERS — Francisco Liriano just threw for about 10 minutes in the bullpen here with Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson and a host of others watching.

To me, it looked like Liriano was throwing at about 80 percent at first, which might have been the instructions. He let a few fastballs go toward the end, and Anderson flashed a big smile at one point.

Nobody had a radar gun, but I don’t think anything he threw was in the upper 90s.

Overall, it looked to me like Liriano was a tad apprehensive. Sometimes it looked like he was laboring. Could have been nerves, trying to show the progress he’s made to Anderson, etc.

This also is the coldest day since I’ve been here, with a strong wind and temperatures dropping into the lower 60s. So that might have played a part.

His pitching motion looks very similar to what we saw in 2006. So it’s not like he’s revamped everything. He’s just bigger. He threw several change-ups in this bullpen session and only a few sliders. The mere fact he’s using all his pitches is probably a good sign for the staff.

Anyway, we’ll get some reaction after the workout ends in about an hour, but those were my first impressions of Liriano.

Update: A Twins official told La Velle that the club stressed to Liriano that they wanted him to take it easy today and pitch like the others did on their first day in camp. That offered an explanation for what we saw because as soon as I went to the main stadium here, LHP Brian Duensing was throwing harder than Liriano was.

“I haven’t thrown for like two, three days, so they told me to take it easy,” Liriano said.

FORT MYERS — “We can start now!” Twins catcher Mike Redmond said this morning. “Franchise is here!”

Francisco Liriano arrived in Twins camp after missing the first nine days because of visa problems in the Dominican Republic.

Liriano, 24, moved purposefully through the clubhouse, getting a pile of clothing from the equipment managers.

For those who haven’t seen him since before Tommy John surgery in November 2006, he is noticeably thicker now. The media guide lists him at 6-2, 225 pounds. There have been reports of his fastball hitting 97 miles per hour in recent workouts at the Twins’ Dominican academy.

He is throwing today and will address the media after the workout.

FORT MYERS, FLA. — Randy Ruiz and Tommy Watkins each hit home runs, as the Twins defeated Concordia University 7-5 on Tuesday in a six-inning tussle at the Lee County Sports Complex.

Kevin Mulvey pitched two scoreless innings for the Twins, and Twins pitcher Nick Blackburn tossed two scoreless innings for Concordia.

The Golden Bears struck for four runs in the third inning against Twins reliever Philip Humber, who gave up a two-run homer to junior catcher Chris Herbert and a two-run double to senior third baseman Jake Waldman.

The Twins trailed 5-2 before making their comeback.