FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Minnesota Twins battered Baltimore starter Brian Matusz with their anticipated opening day lineup, beating the Orioles 5-2 on Wednesday night.

Matusz allowed eight of 12 batters at reach base, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks.

The left-hander pitched just 1 1-3 innings before throwing more pitches in a bullpen session in an effort to improve his mechanics.

“It’s nice to get this out of the way in spring training,” said Matusz, line to start Baltimore’s second game of the regular season.

Matsuz has a 5.93 ERA this spring. He went 10-12 with a 4.30 ERA last season.

“I just couldn’t do it,” Matusz said about finding his form. “I went over after that inning and threw on the mound just to get some extra pitches in and see if I could figure it out. And right away, boom, boom, boom, I finally got that angle back.

“It was just my timing. My timing and my rhythm. I was out there trying to do too much. I’ve been working a lot on trying to get better mechanics.”

Twins starter Francisco Liriano, also a left-hander, had mixed results. He struck out nine in three innings, but threw 76 pitches and had three walks. He gave up four hits and one run on Adam Jones’ homer.

“I’d like to go deeper into games,” said Liriano, who has a 4.97 ERA.

He was 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA last season.

“He was a little bit out there, but he got his work in,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. “He had a lot of punchouts. At the same time, I would think he would say he was a little disappointed with the way he threw the ball. But the main thing is he’s healthy.”