Rookies Do Job in Twins’ Opener

There were butterflies in the beginning and a brief practice session at the end, two predictable signs of the youthful roster that the Minnesota Twins brought into the season.

It’s what happened in between that proved a welcome relief for the Twins and their largest opening-day crowd in six years.

Getting clutch performances from several rookies, a stellar pitching performance from Brad Radke and a timely pinch-hit triple from Brent Gates, the Twins surprised the Toronto Blue Jays with a 6-1 victory Tuesday night at Minneapolis.

That allowed the Twins, who started four of their 10 rookies against a team that could contend for the playoffs, to make a good first impression in this uncertain season. Getting off to a solid start will be important for morale in the clubhouse and in the community.

“Everybody starts to second-guess themselves and stuff like that [if you start slowly],” said Matt Lawton, whose three hits included a two-run double in a six-run seventh inning. “It’s going to be pretty crucial for us to have a pretty good April and May. Everybody’s not expecting much of us, so if we can have a pretty good April, compete, hang in there, I think we’ll go down the stretch and be OK.”

Gates’ triple highlighted the seventh-inning rally, which included the second double of the night by Doug Mientkiewicz, a run-scoring single by Torii Hunter and the second single of the game by Chad Allen, three rookies who shook off jitters in their first opening-day starts.

“I thank God it’s over, I really do,” said Allen, who hit .385 in spring training and singled in his first major league at-bat.

Among the rookies the Twins used, only shortstop Cristian Guzman struggled. He struck out twice before Gates hit for him with two on and no outs in the seventh after Dan Plesac relieved starter Pat Hentgen.

Gates punched an 0-1 pitch into the right-field corner. That scored Mientkiewicz and Terry Steinbach, who barely slid around Darrin Fletcher’s tag.

Hunter followed with a bloop single that scored Gates. Lawton’s two-run double should have been the third out of the inning, but Shannon Stewart lost the ball against the roof and it fell in shallow center field. Marty Cordova followed with an RBI double.

That made good on the front-office ploy to “guarantee” a victory. Each of the 45,601 fans would have been eligible for a free ticket to another game if the Twins lost, but they went home happy anyway.

Chicago 11, Seattle 3--Ray Durham, who later went out with a mild groin injury, led off the game with a home run and Darrin Jackson and Jeff Abbott also homered for the White Sox at Seattle.

Jim Parque (1-0) pitched 6 2/3 innings as the White Sox got off to their first 2-0 start since 1992.

Frank Thomas was three for four with two RBIs for the second consecutive night. Jackson tied a career high with four hits and Mike Caruso also had three hits for the White Sox.

The White Sox have hit five homers in their first two games.

New York 7, Oakland 4--Orlando Hernandez pitched 7 1/3 innings of three-hit ball and Chad Curtis homered in his first at-bat of the year as the Yankees rebounded from a season-opening loss at Oakland.

Last year, the Yankees lost the first three games of the season and four of five, then went on to a 125-victory campaign that ended with their second World Series title in three seasons.

Oakland, which came back against Roger Clemens and two relievers to beat the Yankees, 5-3, in a rain-shortened game Monday night, got nowhere against Hernandez (1-0).

“El Duque” gave up three runs, struck out six and left with a 5-1 lead, a strong follow-up to his sensational campaign last year when he became the first rookie right-hander to win 12 games for the Yankees since Ron Davis went 14-2 as a reliever in 1979.