BALTIMORE – Yes, the Twins have started 0-1 for eight consecutive seasons. Now the trick is preventing those Opening Day woes from growing into an 0-2 record.

That's what has happened in four of the past five seasons, and the launches have been ugly in a few of those Aprils. They went 4-10 in the first two weeks of 2011. They stumbled to 0-4 and 2-7 a year later. It was a 4-7 start in 2013 and 3-6 in 2014. And last season? After being held scoreless for the season's first 24 innings, the Twins completed a 1-6 start with the worst home-opener loss in franchise history.

"The first game wasn't very good, and we didn't recover," Paul Molitor said of his nightmarish first week as manager. "We got pitched well against in Detroit, our starters didn't give us what they had been in Fort Myers, and things went south for the first six or seven games."

Not since 2010, when Opening Day was the exception to a 5-1 start, have the Twins emerged from the first week with a winning record. It's a pattern that damages their confidence, one that Molitor and General Manager Terry Ryan hope can be arrested here and at Kansas City over the weekend.

"We could make life so much easier if we could have a successful April," Ryan said. "We didn't play well at all last year."

The Twins went 20-7 in May, preventing 2015 from spiraling into failure. But Molitor would rather not have to perform a similar recovery this year.

"I love good starts. I just don't know if you can count on them," Molitor said. "I think players understand that whole cliché about games in April counting the same as games in September."

Payroll dips a bit

The Twins open the 2015 season with a 25-player payroll of $105.3 million, a slight decline over last season's $108.3 million figure but still the third-highest number in franchise history. It's also, according to figures compiled by USA Today, the fourth-lowest amount in the AL Central.

Twins players earn an average of $4.21 million this season, though only nine players — six of them pitchers — will collect more than that. Joe Mauer's $23 million salary for 2016, the sixth season of his eight-year $184 million contract, leads the team by far, with starting pitchers Ervin Santana ($13.5 million), Ricky Nolasco ($12 million) and Phil Hughes ($9.2 million) next in line.

The Twins' payroll amounts to less than half of the Yankees, who at $223 million have retaken the title of biggest spenders from the Dodgers, who dropped to $221.3 million, according to USA Today. The Twins rank 18th in the majors, 11th in the American League, and fourth in the AL Central, ahead of only Cleveland.