The main storyline coming out of this game is that Kyle Gibson struggled on the road again. However, the defense was terrible behind him. If they just make the plays they should, Gibson probably only gives up three runs and would have probably been left in to pitch after five innings. If anything, this was a better game than most for Gibson since he struck out 4 and walked none in five innings, which is much better than his season numbers, which is almost the same number of walks as strikeouts.

Gibson also pitched much better than his counterpart, Tim Lincecum, who walked 6 batters and gave up 5 hits along with at least 2 wicked line drives for outs, both by Trevor Plouffe. However, the Twins had no luck in stringing hits and walks together (or were "unclutch" if you prefer), so Lincecum gets credited with both a "W" and a "quality start." It also didn't help when Dozier pulled a Torii in the first inning after a leadoff double. Hopefully, the Twins got all their mistakes out for this game because they will need to do better in the next two games if they want to go home with a winning record.

These are always trying times in my home as my wife is a Mariners fan. Well, at least she wants the Mariners to win more than any other sports team. Of course, she has zero interest in any sports team, so that's not saying much.

The main "conflict" in the home as such comes from our boys. Junior is staunchly a Twins fan and makes sure it is well known when the Twins and M's play each other. (It was he who called the Twins the "T's" after my wife loudly announced "Go, M's.")

Trey, being the younger brother, of course, cannot support anything his older brother supports and "feels sorry for Mommy" because no one else cheers for the Mariners when they play the Twins, so he cheers for the Mariners. I'm sure he'll eventually realize he's a full-time Twins fan as he gets older (his favorite players or Joe Mauer and Glen Perkins), but it's still disappointing when he cheers against the Twins.

Which is why it always nice to win against the Mariners. The Twins needed a rare series-opening victory (although it is starting to become more common now) since King Felix is looming on Sunday.

Kyle Gibson pitched how he needs to pitch to be successful. Limited walks (2, 1 of which scored the only run against him) a handful of strikeouts and a bunch of groundball outs.

The Twins hit the ball much better than the 5 runs would indicate. At one point, they had line-drive outs to infielders in 3 out of  4 batters and a number of well-hit outs to OFs as well.

The one concern was the bullpen, which nearly coughed up another lead. The bullpen's K rate, even when including Perkins' rate, is perilously close to the starting staff's. I was hoping to make that gap smaller this year, but I didn't expect a bullpen that was pretty much the same as last year's to have a big drop. Hopefully, it is just SSS since a number of relievers are well below their career K rates (Thielbar is one who is well down and was hit hard in this game).

At least the Twins are back to .500, and they finally have more victories as the Twins than they did as the Senators, which is really sad to happen so soon from the Senators' perspective.