The Twins finally put a number in the wins column today after beating the Red Sox 8-3 for their first win of the spring. The pitching was very good, and the offense finally came around for eight runs and eleven total hits. Here are my notes from the game:

** Livan Hernandez took the mound for his first outing as a Twin and had a pretty good performance. Hernandez went two innings and gave up one run off two hits. The lone run came off of a homerun by Mike Lowell.

** After Hernandez relievers took over the remainder of the game. Matt Guerrier was in first and allowed just a walk in his inning of work. Pat Neshek took the mound next and allowed nothing while collecting a strikeout. The fifth went to Dennys Reyes for his first outing of spring and he allowed an unearned run and two hits.

** Julio DePaula was given two innings of work after Reyes, and had another good outing. In his two innings of work, DePaula allowed just two walks and no hits or runs. Bobby Korecky, the new International League single-season saves holder, pitched a solid eighth inning of work allowing just a run. The ninth went to Ricky Barrett and he rebounded with a nice outing after a poor start to his spring last week.

** Hitting wise the Twins improved a lot. On Saturday they took nine walks and a step forward. Today they collected eleven hits and didn’t ground into a single double play.

** Jon Knott knocked a ball out of the park in the third inning for his first homerun of the spring. It’ll be tough for him to make the roster as an outfielder, but there is that outside chance. Meanwhile, Brian Buscher had another pretty good outing to help his chances of making the team in a bench role. He went just 1-3 but was robbed of a hit by Sox second basemen Dustin Pedroia in his first at-bat.

** A centerfield update: Denard Span was given five at-bats as the starting centerfielder and went 1-5 with two runs scored. He also threw out a runner at second. Jason Pridie (Pry-Dee) came into the game to play right field and went 2-2 with a run and 2 RBI.

** Other notable hitters, all of whom collected a hit include: Jason Kubel, Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer, Mike Redmond, Howie Clark and Adam Everett.

** On a final note, four players stole bases for the Twins: Pridie, Span, Cuddyer and Punto.

I’ll have the first edition of Making the Team up tomorrow. The one on Monday will include the pitchers and the positions players will go up on Tuesday.

The Twins have two games tomorrow. Glen Perkins will pitch against the Reds in the team’s A game and in the B game against the Red Sox, Scott Baker will take on Josh Beckett (So much for the ‘B’).