Orioles Lose Season Opener as Pitching Duel Fails to Develop

On the first day/night with a full schedule of baseball games there were a few quality pitching performances turned in. Those included the games by Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers and Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. Yet, a game that was supposed to be a matchup of two dominant pitchers ended up being anything but. Johan Santana who won the Cy Young Award for the Twins last year got the win in the Twins 7-4 victory over the Orioles despite giving up four earned runs in six innings. One of the reasons that Santana got that victory is Baltimore's "ace" Eric Bedard was even worse on opening night as he gave up six earned runs in four and two-thirds innings of pitching and surrendered the 3-2 lead the Orioles had provided him after their half of the third inning.

Both pitchers struggled with their location of their pitches. Too many balls were up in the strike zone or out over the plate which allowed the hitters to take advantage of the friendly confines of Minnesota's dome. Bedard cruised through the first inning, but in a period of two pitches in the second found his team trailing 2-0. Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter hit homeruns on back to back pitches from Bedard to give the Twins the lead. The Orioles came back though in their half of the fourth inning. Behind RBI doubles by Aubrey Huff, Jay Gibbons, and Corey Patterson the Orioles fought back to take a 3-2 lead. Patterson's double was one of the classic "turf doubles" as it bounced just high enough off the ground to tip off a leaping Morneau's glove and roll into the outfield area for a double.