Heading into Wednesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins’ fans had to be scratching their heads a little bit.

In Monday’s season opener, the Twins gave their fans reason for optimism with a well-crafted 3-2 win. They played small ball, delivered solid defense and received strong pitching from starter Livan Hernandez as well as relievers Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan.

In Game 2 on Tuesday, Minnesota got roughed up pretty good as starter Boof Bonser was hit early and often by the Angels in a 9-1 loss at the Metrodome. The Twins managed just one extra-base hit and had two relievers — Brian Bass and Juan Rincon — get touched for two runs apiece in brief relief appearances.

So which are the real Minnesota Twins? The ones who eked out a one-run win Monday or the ones who got manhandled Tuesday?

The answer is somewhere in between but, in all likelihood, they’ll be a lot closer to Tuesday’s version than the season-opening team.

This is not news to most Twins fans. Based on what happened in the offseason with the departures of Johann Santana, Torii Hunter and Matt Garza, it was obvious even before the opener that the team was going to have to rely on a number of unproven players.

While there is potential on the active roster there’s not much I-can-contribute-consistently-right-now in the lineup.

Once you get beyond Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Delmon Young in the batting order, there are a bunch of Twins players who can be pitched to — usually with success. And after you get past Michael Cuddyer, there are a bunch of guys who are candidates to flirt with the Mendoza Line (.200 batting average) for much of the season.

Prior to this year, the Twins were able to remain competitive despite a mediocre offense by relying on solid pitching and above-average defense. Well ... the defense is now average at best and the pitching is far from solid.

Shortstop Adam Everett and Mauer are potential gold glovers but third baseman Mike Lamb and second baseman Brendan Harris are liabilities at their positions. In addition, Carlos Gomez still needs to prove he can be a quality center fielder at the major league level.

The starting staff of Hernandez, Bonser, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn is very suspect. And those who think the return of Francisco Liriano in the near future will solidify the rotation are expecting a lot from a guy coming off Tommy John surgery.

Bottom line is, the Twins need a number of players to overachieve if they are to be competitive this season. Considering their age and experience, that’s not a likely scenario.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

Jim Rueda is the Free Press sports editor. To contact him, call 344-6381 or e-mail him at jrueda@mankatofreepress.com