BALTIMORE — A couple of leftovers from a deflating loss for the Twins, who were playing well at the end of training camp but are now 0-2 once again:
— When Brian Dozier walked with two outs in the ninth, putting the tying run on base, Paul Molitor sent Danny Santana to first base to run for the All-Star second baseman. Was the intention to have Santana — nine for 10 on stolen-base attempts this spring — run his way into scoring position?
Not really, Molitor said.
"I didn't really want to risk it with Joe [Mauer] up there," Molitor said. "It was more [about] putting my fastest guy out there in case we had a chance to score. A ball that finds a corner or splits the outfielders, maybe Danny has a chance to score."
Santana isn't that much faster than Dozier, Molitor noted, but with two outs in the ninth, the difference was enough to make it worthwhile, he judged. It became moot when Mauer struck out on a 96-mph fastball.
— Yovani Gallardo's debut as an Oriole was a big success. The veteran righthander, signed as a free agent just before camp opened, allowed only two hits over five innings. Both of them were to Byron Buxton — who had struck out all three times up in Monday's opener.
Buxton sliced a double down the left-field line in the third inning, and belted another double to the wall in left-center in the fifth. A sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly scored him the first time, but he was stranded on second the next time.
"He was good," Molitor said of his rookie center fielder. "The second one, he hung in there, saw a lot of pitches before he got one he could put out there in the gap."
