I'd be surprised, judging by the forecasts, if there is a baseball game in Target Field tomorrow, meaning that all-former-Mets matchup -- R.A. Dickey vs. Mike Pelfrey, the former Twin against the current one -- may be put off a day. In the meantime, here are three thoughts on tonight's 9-3 Twins loss:
COLD JUST WATCHING HIM: There were the caps with the Elmer Fudd earflaps, the stick-'em-up face-covering ski masks, the winter gloves under the fielding gloves. And then there was Phil Hughes, ignoring the freezing-temperature chill and pitching in short sleeves. The temperature at first pitch was 35 degrees, it dropped from there, yet the Twins' starter was in the same uniform he wore in sunny Fort Myers. "Always," he said of his sleeveless look. "I can't pitch in long sleeves." Wow. Wonder if he thought about that before deciding to sign with Minnesota.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES: It hasn't quite been the recurring theme it was last season, but chalk up this loss -- and the Twins' third failure this season to climb above .500 -- to their failure to capitalize on their opportunities. Minnesota scored in each of the first two innings, but left runners in scoring position both times. In the third, they had a runner on second with one out, but didn't score. In the fourth, they had a runner on third with one out, and failed again. Overall, the Twins went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, and didn't collect a hit from Chris Colabello's leadoff single in the third to Eduardo Escobar's pinch-hit, two-out single in the eighth. Their third run came when the game was gone: Trevor Plouffe's ninth-inning homer. "If we could have had one big inning there in the middle, before [Toronto] got those runs, we might have put them away," Colabello said. "But that's the game sometimes."
STILL CLEANING UP: Speaking of Colabello, he had three hits in five at-bats Wednesday, and drove in a run in the first inning with a double. That's his 15th RBI on the season, putting him back in the AL lead. And the three hits were a career-high. "I'd trade all three hits for the win," he shrugged.
