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Recap: Twins 3, Blue Jays 13
Boxscores  •  Line Movements  •  BT Movements
Game: 1
Venue: Rogers Centre
Date: April 01, 2011 7:07 PM EDT
  

TORONTO (AP) - Justin Morneau returned to the lineup, but the Minnesota Twins offense went missing on opening day.

J.P. Arencibia homered twice and drove in five runs, Jose Bautista and Adam Lind also went deep and Toronto routed Minnesota 13-3 on Friday night, handing the Twins their third straight season-opening loss.

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Playing for the first time since sustaining a season-ending concussion during a game in Toronto last July 7, Morneau went 0 for 4 and grounded into a double play. The 2006 AL MVP lined out to center in his first at-bat and flied out to the warning track in his second.

``I felt good, just missed that second one,' Morneau said. ``I felt like I saw the ball pretty well tonight.'

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was pleased to get his first baseman safely through the season opener.

``He was out there. That was probably the biggest thing and he got through it,' Gardenhire said. ``We'll just keep moving forward from there.'

Before the game, Morneau's teammates welcomed him back with a hard-hatted show of solidarity.

The three other members of Morneau's batting practice group - Jason Kubel, Joe Mauer and Jim Thome - all joined Morneau in wearing helmets instead of soft caps as they took their cuts.

``If Morny does it, they all do it,' Gardenhire said. ``They're a tight-knit group.'

Morneau wore a helmet during batting practice throughout spring training. The Canadian-born slugger was injured last July in a collision with Blue Jays shortstop John McDonald as he tried to break up a double play.

Arencibia, who also hit two homers in his major league debut last August, slammed a two-run drive to center in the fourth inning, tripled home a pair of runs in the fifth and capped his night with a leadoff shot to right in the eighth. He finished 3 for 4 and set a career high for RBIs.

Bautista, baseball's reigning home run king, went back-to-back with Lind in the fifth as the Blue Jays, who led the majors with 257 home runs last season, wasted no time in resuming their power-packed attack, much to the delight of a sellout crowd of 47,984.

``We're capable of doing that still,' Bautista said. ``The bulk of our lineup, the core of our team is still capable of hitting home runs. We're going to have other options in the offense but we're not going to shy away from swinging the bats well.'

Ricky Romero (1-0) improved to 3-0 with a 2.48 ERA in four career starts against Minnesota. The left-hander allowed three runs, one earned, and six hits in 6 1-3 innings. He walked none and struck out seven.

Jason Frasor worked the eighth and Carlos Villanueva finished for the Blue Jays.

Three of the four homers came off Twins right-hander Carl Pavano (0-1), who gave up eight runs, seven earned, on six hits in four-plus innings. He walked two and struck out three.

Toronto jumped on Pavano with a four-run first. Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar singled and Bautista walked before Lind was hit by a pitch. Aaron Hill and Edwin Encarnacion followed with sacrifice flies and the final run scored when Tsuyoshi Nishioka made an error on Travis Snider's hard grounder to second.

The Blue Jays added two more in the fourth on Arencibia's first homer, then tacked on four more in the fifth.

Bautista led off with a drive into the second deck in left-center and Lind chased Pavano with a towering shot that hit off the facing of the third deck in right.

Jeff Manship replaced Pavano but walked Snider and Juan Rivera before Arencibia tripled off the wall in center.

``They swing the bats and if you keep throwing the ball out over the plate they're going to kill you,' Gardenhire said.

Minnesota broke through against Romero in the seventh. Delmon Young scored on Encarnacion's error at third, Alexi Casilla chased Romero with an RBI double and Denard Span added a run-scoring groundout.

Toronto added three more in the eighth against reliever Dusty Hughes. Arencibia homered, Lind hit an RBI single and John McDonald had a sacrifice fly.

Nishioka got his first major league hit, a ground single through the left side, off Romero in the sixth.

NOTES: Hill, who missed most of spring training with a right quadriceps injury, left the game after striking out in the seventh and was replaced by McDonald. ... Toronto announced it will not pick up the maximum three option years on Hill's contract. The team can still pick up one or two option years at the end of the season. ... The Blue Jays held a pregame ceremony to honor Hall of Fame inductees Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick, who were joined on stage by Twins Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2013
The Associated Press
All Rights Reserved

 SERIES AT A GLANCE
GAME 1
Twins at Blue Jays
Fri, Apr 1 Final 3 to 13
 Boxscores  •  Recaps
GAME 2
Twins at Blue Jays
Sat, Apr 2 Final 1 to 6
 Boxscores  •  Recaps
GAME 3
Twins at Blue Jays
Sun, Apr 3 Final 4 to 3
 Boxscores  •  Recaps

 CLOSING LAS VEGAS LINE
 Team  ML   RUN   O/U 
 MIN  +110   -200   8.5 
 TOR  -120   +170   
LAS VEGAS LINE MOVEMENTS

 CLOSING SPORTSBOOK LINE
 Team  ML   RUN   O/U 
 MIN  +108   -200   8.5 
 TOR  -118   +170   
OFFSHORE LINE MOVEMENTS

 BETTING TRENDS
 Team  ML   RUN   O/U 
 MIN  59%   12%   79% 
 TOR  41%   88%   21% 
BT MOVEMENTS

 MLB RECAPS
 Friday, Apr 1
 
  •  Astros at Phillies
1:05 PM EDT
  •  Pirates at Cubs
2:20 PM EDT
  •  White Sox at Indians
3:05 PM EDT
  •  Red Sox at Rangers
4:05 PM EDT
  •  Diamondbacks at Rockies
4:10 PM EDT
  •  Twins at Blue Jays
7:05 PM EDT
  •  Mets at Marlins
7:10 PM EDT
  •  Orioles at Rays
7:10 PM EDT
  •  Angels at Royals
8:10 PM EDT
  •  Mariners at Athletics
10:05 PM EDT
  •  Giants at Dodgers
10:10 PM EDT
 
 
 
  
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