It was a little overwhelming. They told me a couple of days ago I was going to pitch against the Twins. I didn't know how to prepare. I just went out there and threw strikes.

You have to pitch to him like he was a couple of years ago. He hits good pitches, he hits bad pitches. He has great hand-eye coordination. He hits mistakes.

It's always embarrassing to come off the field, especially before throwing your first pitch, ... I was going to see what I could do with the first hitter and go from there. Basically, I played catch with (catcher Mike) Matheny the whole game. I was about 75 percent. One guy would pop it up, one guy would hit a ground ball. I just ran with it as long as I could. It was fun in a way.

We are looking a lot more confident than we were a couple of days ago,

We still have it. I saw it a couple of days ago in the garage when I was home for Christmas.

I snuck in a couple of days ago, but this is my first entry into the buildings.