O's debut

The Orioles 2007 debut in Minneapolis last night has generated considerable agita around here. On the up side, there were plenty of positives, however, the negatives compiled into a 7-4 loss at the hands of the Twins.

Positives

The offense scored 4 earned runs in 6 innings off of Johan Santana. Granted, it was only Opening Day and Santana did not yet have his dominating stuff, but he is left handed and that is often enough to stymie the O's offense.

Jay Gibbons returned from an injury riddled 2006 campaign and went 2-4 with 2 doubles and an rbi. Gibbons is now 8-15 lifetime against Santana.

Tejada homered.

The bullpen worked 3 1/3 innings allowing 1 unearned run. O's pitching walked a mere 3 batsmen.

Rightfielder Nick Markakis notched 2 assists, nailing runners at home and 2nd base.

Negatives

O's starter Erik Bedard got hammered. 4 2/3 IP, 10 H, 6 ER, 2 HR.

The Orioles defense committed two errors.

The negatives list is a short one, but critical. Poor starting pitching and shoddy fielding will almost always add up to a loss. There is good reason to expect that Bedard will pitch much better than he did last night. The fielding, however, was shoddy last season and again last night. C'mon glovemen, catch the damn ball!