I had a nice couple of days away from world and away from the internet, which I'd say say is a good thing to do every now and then, but SB Nation forbids me from saying anything like that.
It was a great opening weekend of games, winning two of three is always good, but even the in the loss we had the tying and winning runs in scoring position with the middle of the lineup up. Juan Rivera came with in a few feet of winning the game for us.
With Nathan bouncing a lot of his pitches I would have liked to see Lind take a couple of pitches, but on the flip of that, Lind has to have been thinking that Nathan would have wanted to get ahead on the count, so the first pitch could be the best pitch he would see in that at bat.
Did we get answers to any of our questions about the team:
- It looks like the fans are, at very least, curious. Good crowds for all three games and Sportsnet said they had their best ratings ever for a Jays game Friday.
- It didn't look like the Twins thought Jose Bautista's 2010 season was a fluke. They pitched him carefully and he still hit two home runs.
- Adam Lind looked pretty good at first base, at least to me. He does seem a little nervous out there, but then who wouldn't be.
- J.P. Arencibia looked pretty good behind the plate. He moves smoothly. He blocked everything. He also looked good at the plate.
- The jury is still out on whether Hill and Lind will have bounce back years. Lind had 4 hits on the weekend and the home runs, but there were some poor at bats too. Hill was 2 for 11. Can't tell much from that, and we'll all have opinions on how he has looked.
- Small ball? The double steal was a great moment. I can't remember a double steal in the last couple of years, though there may have been some.
- Our starting pitchers did well. Kyle Drabek had terrific start. Romero pitched like he has the last two years. Brett Cecil had a bad inning, but it wasn't like the Twins were pounding the ball off him, a bunt single, a soft ground single, a soft fly single and a ball that Escobar almost caught. He was helped out by a nice throw from Travis Snider, but it wasn't like they were hitting rockets off him. If we had gotten a bit more offense, we'd forgive him for the inning.
- The bullpen only gave up one run in their 8.2 innings, the homer off Jon Rauch. Everyone got into a game other than David Purcey and after the spring he had, you can understand why John Farrell might be a little reluctant to go to him. I imagine he'll get into a game against Oakland.
- Our bench, which looked like a weakness to me, had a great opening weekend. Jayson Nix gets us a home run and 2 walks, in 4 plate appearances. Jose Molina gave us a home run and almost equally amazing a walk. Mike McCoy was 4 for 7 at the plate, playing CF with Davis having the sore ankle.
It is great to have baseball back and we have an exciting team to watch.