Three or four leftover thoughts after listening to 15,000 Colabello Cowbells all night:

WAITING ON HIS PITCH: Eduardo Escobar is hitting .333 on the season, and he showed why Friday against Ubaldo Jimenez. While his teammates couldn't figure out the Orioles righthander, Escobar drew a walk in the third inning, then out-thought Jimenez in the eighth. Jimenez had thrown only one fastball to him the entire game. "All night -- changeup, slider, changeup, slider," he said. "That last at-bat, he threw slider for a ball. So I waited for a fastball." He got one, and drilled it off the wall in right for a double his fourth of the year. Considering Pedro Florimon's difficulties -- he's 6-for-54 on the season -- is Escobar now the Twins' starting shortstop? "I don't know," said the 25-year-old Venezuelan, who has started four of the Twins' past five games. "I check the lineup every day."

PICKING UP THE PACE: I'm sure I'm not alone in noting how much better the pace was tonight, and how much nicer a game that finishes in less than two and a half hours is than last night's five-hour slog. But the sped-up game comes with a downside for the Twins, too: it means they're not drawing walks. Minnesota has not drawn more than three walks in three of its past four games, one reason why the Twins have lost all four. Walks have become crucial to the Twins' offense, after all; they are now 11-6 when they draw four or more walks, and 1-9 when they don't.

WISHES HE KNEW: Mike Pelfrey said after the game he hopes his stint on the disabled list with a strained groin "is a blessing in disguise," given how uncertain he sounds about why he's pitching so badly this season. Pelfrey said the symptoms are similar to a "dead arm" period he generally goes through for 20 innings or so -- after throwing 100 innings in a season. That it's going so badly in April has him flummoxed. "I don't feel like I'm doing a whole lot different," he said. "My arm, physically, is fine. If there was something wrong, it would give me an understanding, maybe this is it. Nut that's not an issue."

AND ABOUT THOSE COWBELLS: They didn't work. Chris Colabello, whose name and number were printed on the giveaway bells, went 0-for-4 with the noisemakers in the background. He's now 2-for-21 on this homestand.