Piranha's Swarming Early

Two games into the young season, those pesky piranha's are starting right where they left off last season. In the fifth inning of Monday's opener, after the Orioles had just put three on the board off Johan Santana, leadoff hitter Luis Castillo singled to left. On the subsequent pitch, Nick Punto one hopped the center field wall putting runners on second and third with no outs. With the meat of the order (Mauer, Cuddyer, and Morneau) coming to the plate things were looking good. Mauer walked to load the bases, Cuddyer struck out, bringing up the reigning AL MVP Justin Morneau to the dish. A passed ball by Eric Bedard allowed Castillo to score. Morneau rockets Bedard's next pitch to right plating the second rally starting Piranha, Punto. The sixth inning saw Miguel Tejada take Santana deep and cut the lead back to two. Jeff Cirillo walked leading off the bottom half of the sixth. Another of the swarm came in to pinch run (Jason Tyner). Tyner went on to steal second. After a Jason Bartlett strikeout, lead Piranha, Luis Castillo picked up his second of three hits on the night, a bunt single. With runners on the corners, Punto lashes his second double of the evening plating Tyner. On a night that saw Johan not distributing his best stuff, the piranha's were responsible for putting three runs on the board leading the Twins to a season opening Win.

Continuing on from the opening night festivities, the piranhas continued to swarm. Trailing 2-0 going into the bottom of the fourth, Punto lead off with a single and later came around to score on a double play ground out by Cuddyer. Still down by a run entering the bottom of the fifth the Twins rallied to tie the score on Luis Castillo's fifth hit of the young season scoring Torii Hunter. After completion of a fabulous rendition of the 7th inning stretch by the Twins Nation, Rondell White lead off the bottom of the 7th with a four pitch walk. Speedy Piranha, Jason Tyner replaces White and after a Jason Kubel strike out, once again steals second. With Tyner now in scoring position, 2007's quietest piranha, Jason Bartlett, picks the perfect time to collect his first hit of the season. Tyner comes around from second giving the Twins a 3-2 lead. With six outs left to get to notch win number two, skipper Ron Gardenhire puts the game in the hands of MLB's 2006 best bullpen. Juan Rincon, Dennys Reyes, Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan bent (giving up three base runners over the last two innings) but did not break securing the Twins second win on the young season. A much better start to the 2007 season as the Twins did not pick up win number two until game seven last year.

New Twin Ramon Ortiz gets the nod in the finale vs. Baltimore tomorrow and Jaret Wright. Look for the piranha's to continue the feeding frenzy as the only piranha to have faced Wright is Castillo and he owns a .545 (6-11) average. Heading to Chicago for a big weekend series will be a much happier flight with the momentum of a three game sweep to start the year.