Twins lose big in season opener, 13-3

J.P. Arencibia homered twice and drove in five runs, Jose Bautista and Adam Lind also went deep and the Toronto Blue Jays routed Minnesota 13-3 on Friday night, handing the Twins their third straight season-opening loss.

Arencibia, who also hit two homers in his major league debut last August, slammed a two-run drive to center in the fourth inning, tripled home a pair of runs in the fifth and capped his night with a leadoff shot to right in the eighth. He finished 3 for 4 and set a career high for RBIs.

Bautista, baseball's reigning home run king, went back-to-back with Lind in the fifth as the Blue Jays, who led the majors with 257 home runs last season, wasted no time in resuming their power-packed attack, much to the delight of a sellout crowd of 47,984.

Twins slugger Justin Morneau, playing for the first time since sustaining a season-ending concussion during a game in Toronto last July 7, went 0 for 4 and grounded into a double play.

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Ricky Romero (1-0) improved to 3-0 with a 2.48 ERA in four career starts against Minnesota. The left-hander allowed three runs, one earned, and six hits in 6 1-3 innings. He walked none and struck out seven.

Jason Frasor worked the eighth and Carlos Villanueva finished for the Blue Jays.

Three of the four homers came off Twins right-hander Carl Pavano (0-1), who gave up eight runs, seven earned, on six hits in four-plus innings. He walked two and struck out three.

Toronto jumped on Pavano with a four-run first. Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar singled and Bautista walked before Lind was hit by a pitch. Aaron Hill and Edwin Encarnacion followed with sacrifice flies and the final run scored when Tsuyoshi Nishioka made an error on Travis Snider's hard grounder to second.

The Blue Jays added two more in the fourth on Arencibia's first homer, then tacked on four more in the fifth.

Bautista led off with a drive into the second deck in left-center and Lind chased Pavano with a towering shot that hit off the facing of the third deck in right.

Jeff Manship replaced Pavano but walked Snider and Juan Rivera before Arencibia tripled off the wall in center.

Minnesota broke through against Romero in the seventh. Delmon Young scored on Encarnacion's error at third, Alexi Casilla chased Romero with an RBI double and Denard Span added a run-scoring groundout.

Toronto added three more in the eighth against reliever Dusty Hughes. Arencibia homered, Lind hit an RBI single and John McDonald had a sacrifice fly.

Nishioka got his first major league hit, a ground single through the left side, off Romero in the sixth.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)