SOM diary: Season Opener - KC@MIN

To get the season started, and to learn how to prepare lineups and rosters in a somewhat historical way, I decided to start with teams I don't know at all (which are actually most teams outside of the AL East ;), and randomly picked KC @ MIN as the series I would play first.

BTW, as mentioned earlier, I had decided to up the Twins' chances by giving them RA Dickey as a starter. This is basically the only unhistorical player assignment I will intentionally make to my 2013 replay rosters for now (given my general penchant for knuckleballers it felt such a shame not to have Dickey play despite running only four teams per division...).

Anyway, both opening day starters went deep into the game after shaky starts: James Shields pitched seven innings, coneding runs in the first and fourth inning, and R A Dickey nearly played a complete (nine inning) game, giving up a two run homer to Billy Butler in the top of the first, adding five 1-2-3 innings and leaving only after giving up two hits in the ninth.

The game went deep into extra innings and ended on a not-so-dramatic note when Royals reliever Chen gave up back to back walks in the bottom of the 12th. Aaron Crow took the loss, Casey Fien got the win with two hitless, scoreless innings of relief.

Josh Thole (brought to Minnesota to catch R A Dickey) actually went 1 for 3. He was replaced by Joe Mauer who went 0 for 1 with a walk in extra innings.

Let's see how the season opening series continues for these two teams...