Opening Day notes

• It was good to see C.C. Sabathia get bashed by the Orioles; hopefully this is a prelude to another disappointing season for the Yankees and then another long off-season explaining why they can't win with a budget as big as the recent bail-out.
• Johan Santana picked up a win in his Opening Day start for the Mets, pitching 5 2/3 innings and allowing just one run. The much-maligned bullpen showed its improvement by holding the Reds scoreless for the rest of the game.
• Kansas City and Chicago now lead the Central division thanks to their rain-out and subsequent 0-0 record. Detroit and Cleveland both got pounded.
• Mike Redmond suffered a groin injury--it seems unlikely he'll be starting tonight, given the fact that it's a possibility he's heading to the DL. That would be bad news because I have no interest in seeing Drew Butera behind the plate with any regularity.

As for the Twins' opening game, it was obviously not what we wanted. But there's 161 games left. Francisco Liriano's performance was encouraging, as he allowed only four hits and zero walks in seven innings. Any time you allow just four baserunners in seven innings, you've had a good outing. Unfortunately, timely situational hitting and home runs got all four of them across the plate. Joe Crede got his first Twins hit and Michael Cuddyer drove in the first run of the year. Luis Ayala had a tidy 1-2-3 inning in his first appearance, but the bullpen was sloppy in the ninth, allowing two runs to score. The Twins also failed mightily with runners in scoring position, but hey, it's just one game.

Looking forward to game #2.