--C Jose Morales took the field early before Tuesday's game to work on his throws from home to second base. Morales has thrown out just one of five base-stealers this season and said that's because he's trying to break some bad habits behind the plate. After a devastating ankle injury late in the 2007 season, Morales played much of 2008 injured before having a Tommy John-like surgery on his ankle. Playing with a bum ankle left him relying too much on his arm on throws from home, and that depleted the strength and accuracy catchers garner from using their legs for power.
--RHP R.A. Dickey took an alarmingly short amount of time to warm up during Monday's game against Toronto, manager Ron Gardenhire said. "I said get him up and the phone rang. (Pitching coach Rick Anderson) set the phone down and it rang," Gardenhire said. "(Dickey) was ready. I said, 'He couldn't have thrown more than three pitches, Andy, and the phone rang.' That's because he prepares before. He's up playing catch with the outfielders. I don't think you'll have to worry about him not being prepared."
--LHP Brian Duensing scrambled the schedules of a small town's worth of relatives when he made the Twins this spring. When the Twins opened the season with four home games, 17 friends and relatives packed the Metrodome to witness his major-league debut. "Well, they got to watch me warm up," Duensing said after the series ended without an appearance. Most of his contingent went home, but Duensing's wife, parents and in-laws traveled to Chicago, where Duensing finally made his debut with three innings on March 12.
BY THE NUMBERS: 41 -- Temperature in Minneapolis at first pitch on opening day, the Twins' last inside the 70-degree comfort of the Metrodome. The Twins will have to live with several games in 40-degree weather, and worse, once they move into Target Field next April.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I (thought), 'Oh, (shoot), he did it again.' Then, seeing him run the bases, I remembered it counts for us this time. So it was kind of fun." -- Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, on watching 3B Joe Crede hit his first home run as a Twin in his old home park, Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field
