Postgame: Twins learn how little their good spring matters now

A couple of extras from another home opener loss by the Twins;

The Twins left Florida 10 days ago full of confidence, fueled in part by an eight-game winning streak to wrap up their Grapefruit League schedule.

Just shows you, yet again, how meaningful exhibition results can be.

"A lot of things were positive, but we also cautioned that the regular season is a different animal," Molitor said of those heady days of March. "Sometimes you have to be prepared for the fact that unexpected can happen. That's the nature of the game — it can be cruel."

Cruel is a good word for what's happened to the Twins in the past week. As if last year's 1-6 start wasn't painful enough, the Twins have made things worse this year, going 0-7 and capping off the week with their fifth straight home-opener loss.

So what now? The Twins will take Tuesday off, settle in to the Twin Cities, and try it again on Wednesday. "You encourage guys to take the time off when they can," Molitor said. "Try to get the mental break from the game tomorrow, and hopefully come back a little bit refreshed."

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Molitor said he's still being patient with Park, and believes he will work his way out of this swing-and-miss pattern. "We saw enough signs in spring that we're going to try to find him good matchups," the manager said. "But it's a process."

And that meant using Nunez, coming off a four-hit day Sunday, in the ninth. "I thought in that instance, Nunez's experience gave me a better opportunity to start the inning off with a baserunner," Molitor said.

There is no mystery about his .143 batting average after the first week, Park said. "The answer is clear: My timing is totally off. I'm going to work hard on [fixing] that," he said through an interpreter. "It would have been super awesome if I could have helped out the team. But every day is a lesson for me."