Well, that proved absolutely nothing — except that there is something slightly creepy about the throwback uniforms. I’m not quite sure the Twins want to be channeling a team that went 60-102 during its first year in the Metrodome.

Basically, the Twins came up against a stud pitcher Monday night and Felix Hernandez overwhelmed them. The night’s disturbing offensive snapshots — Cuddyer’s three strikeouts, Casilla’s bases-loaded/none-out AB and the Gomez 0-for-4 — can be erased as soon as tonight. Struggling through the first week, or even the first few weeks, is not going to be cause for demanding dramatic change.

Gardy does have the leverage of depth to shake things up. My question right now is how many changes he’ll make for Game 2, lest it look like he’s overreacting to the opener. It would have almost been easier to put out an altered lineup tonight if the Twins had won 6-1 instead of losing by that score. But I’ll give good odds that Delmon is in the lineup tonight against lefty Erik Bedard.

Atop the bothersome chart — other than Mike Redmond almost getting decapitated by Russell Branyan’s bat in the top of the fifth and injuring his groin running out a double in the bottom of the inning — was the ninth-inning relief work in a no-pressure situation. Ms. Baseball called out Jesse Crain for seeming to take minutes between pitches, Craig Breslow walked Ken Griffey on four pitches in their lefty/lefty matchup and Matt Guerrier yielded a two-out, two-run single (albeit a grounder) that let the Mariners switch from bringing in their closer to a mop-up guy for the bottom of the ninth.

Visiting with Gary Eichten on Monday’s Midday show, I said my greatest concern about the Twins is the bridge from their starters to closer Joe Nathan. Luis Ayala pitched a nice eighth, but the ninth reinforced that concern. Yes, it’s only one game, but I don’t want to start thinking of the bullpen as the bridge to nowhere.

Nothing is etched in stone based on the Opening Day clunker. Nothing, as long as that wasn’t Redmond in the ambulance that was racing away from the Metrodome — sirens blaring and lights flashing — a few minutes after the game.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 8:28 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.