No satisfaction for Twins in Opening Day defeat

BALTIMORE - Josh Willingham's towering two-run, ninth-inning homer Friday afternoon was easily the biggest Opening Day highlight for the Twins, and his terse, four-word answer to the first question he faced after the Orioles held on for a 4-2 victory pretty much summed up the team's mood at Camden Yards.

Asked if his first home run as a Twin was less meaningful in defeat, Willingham grumbled, "Of course. We lost."

Coming off a 63-99 season, the Twins took little satisfaction in making the Orioles sweat until the last out. After Willingham's homer against lefthander Troy Patton, Danny Valencia drew a two-out walk against Baltimore closer Jim Johnson, and Chris Parmelee singled, putting runners at first and third.

But Johnson got Trevor Plouffe to ground out to shortstop, giving an announced crowd of 46,773 one last reason to celebrate on Camden Yards' 20th anniversary.

"We gave ourselves a shot," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "The guys were into it. Willy hit the big home run, and we got ourselves in another situation where another big hit, who knows what happens? So that's a good thing, but a loss is a loss."

The Orioles will start righthander Tommy Hunter in Game 2, opposite lefty Francisco Liriano. The Twins have big pitching concerns, but throughout spring training, they felt confident they could play better defense than last year and definitely score more runs.

Their first test was Jake Arrieta, a hard-throwing righthander who was 10-8 with a 5.05 ERA last year. He held them to two hits over seven shutout innings.

In last year's 13-3 Opening Day loss at Toronto, the Twins fell into a 4-0 first-inning hole. On Friday, Nick Markakis hit a two-run, first-inning homer off Carl Pavano, giving Baltimore early command.

Pavano came out throwing fastballs 82-83 miles per hour, and while he eventually hit 87 mph, it was clear this would be a struggle.

"I've never been a guy who came out of the gate as strong as I'll be the next couple of weeks," said Pavano, whose fastball averaged 89 mph last year, according to FanGraphs. "You guys have seen me the last couple of years. It's not always about velocity. You've just got to compete no matter what you've got."

Pavano did compete, limiting the damage to one run in the fourth and sixth innings, when the Orioles threatened to break open the game. He issued just two walks in seven innings, but both turned into runs.

"I felt like I had some great plays behind me," Pavano said. "The double play Danny [Valencia] turned. The double play on the ball to Willingham in left field. [First baseman Chris] Parmelee made some great plays that kept me in the ballgame."

"That ball was in the deepest part of the field, right at the wall, with the sun coming right in his face," Gardenhire said. "You could see the sun reflecting off his glasses. That tells you it's a tough play, a really tough play."

New shortstop Jamey Carroll made three tough plays, including an over-the-shoulder catch in short left field to keep Markakis at third right after he tripled. Then, Willingham ran into foul territory to catch a pop fly from Matt Wieters and made a strong, one-hop throw to catcher Joe Mauer in time to get Markakis at the plate.

"I knew that they may send him," Willingham said through gritted teeth. "There was nobody else on base, so I just came up firing regardless."

Willingham finished 1-for-4 in his Twins debut, and one of those outs was a liner to left that stranded two runners in the fourth. He had career highs in home runs (29) and RBI (98) for Oakland last year before cashing on a three-year, $21 million free-agent contract with the Twins.

The Twins signed him to replace Michael Cuddyer's offense, but he seems in no hurry to take on Cuddyer's role as team spokesman.