Here are a few thoughts following the Twins' 3-2 loss to Baltimore at Hammond Stadium


Ervin Santana got his work in, throwing 42 pitches through four innings and another 15 in the bullpen. A hanging slider to Jonathan Schoop in the second turned into a two-run homer but he pitched fairly well around that. He really worked on his change up and now has a good feel for it.

Interesting day on the basepaths. Before Eddie Rosario's sacrifice fly, Brian Dozier walked and went to third on Torii Hunter's hard hit into the left field corner. As bench coach Joe Vavra said, everyone expected the throw to go to the cutoff man in order to keep Dozier honest. But Travis Snider took a shot at second, where Hunter was headed. That caught everyone off guard, for the Twins should have sent Dozier home once the throw went to second. Hunter slid in safely on a somewhat close play. Then Dozier doubled in the sixth then took off for second - which was the right move - when Orioles pitcher Logan Verrett threw a wild pitch. The ball deflected off the backstop perfectly for catcher Caleb Jospeh to grab it and throw Dozier out.

Casey Fien and Caleb Thielbar each pitched two scoreless innings on Wednesday, which they sorely needed after struggling in previous outings. There's still time for them to impress in the race for bullpen help.


Eduardo Nunez drove in Eduardo Escobar with a single in the fifth but got caught trying to steal second. Brian Dozier doubled to left field in the