The Red Wings open their season this afternoon against Bryce Harper and Syracuse. Here are the lineups:

 

Red Wings

Brian Dozier SS

Tsuyoshi Nishioka 2B

Joe Benson CF

Aaron Bates 1B

Rene Tosoni LF

Matt Carson RF

Brian Dinkelman DH

Michael Hollimon 3B

Drew Butera C

 

SP: PJ Walters

 

Corey Brown LF

Seth Bynum SS

Xavier Paul RF

Tyler Moore 1B

Bryce Harper CF

Jason Michaels DH

Mark Teahen 3B

Jhonatan Solano C

Jarrett Hoffpauir 2B

 

SP: Mitch Atkins

Other than Butera, this lineup is as good as any IL lineup.

Brian Dozier led off with a double... a batter later, Joe Benson walked.

 

PJ Walters, a scoreless first frame.

Top 3... Dozier singled, went to 2B on a walk and third on a groundout by Nishioka. Joe Benson walked. With two outs, Benson stole 2B, and Dozier scored on the catcher's throwing error. Aaron Bates walked.

 

End of 2 1/2 innings, Red Wings 1-0 lead.

Brian Dozier led off with a double... a batter later, Joe Benson walked.

 

PJ Walters, a scoreless first frame.

Nishioka pop out to first. Go ahead, note his outs> I expect a lot of them from him

 

Benson 2 walks already. encouraging.

PJ Walters with three scoreless innings, but 57 pitches already.

Carson leads off 3rd w/triple. Appears via Gameday to have been off CF fence.

Dinkleman/Hollimon fan, Dru pops to short. leadoff triple wasted.

PJ Walters with four shutout innings, two hits, two walks, four strikeouts... 71 pitches, just 43 strikes. Jeff Manship enters the game.

Matt Carson hsa a single, triple and double in his first three Red Wings at bats.

Drew Butera sac fly scores Carson to give the Red Wigns a 2-0 lead in the 6th.

Dinkleman scored on Butera sac fly to make it 2-0. Dinkleman got on after a FC/Teahan throwing error. Dozier walked in that inning, has been on base 3 times.

Nishioka is 0-3.

Tyler Robertson matches up lefty/lefty with Harper and fans him in the sixth, with a runner on.

Carson 4-4

 

Dinkleman triples in 2 4-0 Roch.

5-0... Clutch by Dinkelman, especially coming against a lefty.

Dru 2 run HR. 7-0

 

Gardy is probably on the phone with TRyan trying to get him called up.

Ed literally took the words (re: Gardy phone call) out of my mouth/fingers.

7-4 Rochester ahead

Brendan Wise gave up a 2 run single and 2 run double in the 7th, 7-4 Roch.

Casey Fien with a 1-2-3 9th and Roch wins 7-4.

Good for Drew. He should be motivated to show the Twins he can improve his bat. I don't want him called up, but I'll admire that he went up to bat in Triple A after two seasons in the bigs and is doing what he can to try and make it back up.

If the twins can hang around in the central throughout the summer, Drew would be a great September callup. He is a great late inning defensive replacement. We just have to make sure we aren't in a position to rely on his hitting.

Matt Carson was the guy I wanted the Twins to keep around as a power guy (unlike Burroughs). I like his first day a lot.