To Err Is Human--and Very Twins-like : Baseball: Minnesota gets better pitching than anticipated, but defense has fallen on unaccustomed hard times.

The list of fine alumni of the Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff keeps growing, with Frank Viola and Jeff Reardon gone from last year’s team, and the Angels’ Bert Blyleven from the year before.

But the Twins seemed prepared to face a transition to a young staff, if only because their pitchers would have a strong defense behind them. Gary Gaetti has won the past four Gold Gloves at third base, and Kirby Puckett has done the same in center field.

But the early season has produced a different scene. The Twins, who finished third in the American League in fielding last year and led the major leagues in fielding in their World Series championship season of 1987 and 1988, have committed 11 errors in the first week of the season.

The lockout-shortened spring can be blamed, but no other team in the league has had the Twins’ troubles.

Gaetti, after committing 10 all last season, already has three errors at third. Puckett, who had four all last season, also has three, the latest when he lost a fly ball in the sun, allowing a run to score in the third inning of a 4-1 loss to the Angels at Anaheim Stadium Sunday.

Manager Tom Kelly is left to wonder how long it will take for the effects of the shortened spring--or whatever ails his defense--to wear away.

“I guess it will be up to the players,” he said. “Errors are part of the game, but there been a few extra to start the season.”

While the Twins have struggled defensively, they have gotten surprisingly strong pitching from a staff that ranges in age from 25 to 28.

At 26, Allan Anderson is the ace, having won 33 games over the past two seasons. He and Roy Smith, 28, who was 10-6 for the Twins last year, are the most experienced starters.

The other two starters were among the five pitchers acquired in the trade that sent Viola and outfielder Loy McBride to the Mets last July.

One is David West, 25, who has a 4-5 record after losing his first start this season in a game in which he allowed two runs in six innings. Neither run was earned.

The other is Kevin Tapani, who pitched six shutout innings to win his first start. In his second, he struck out eight Angels in five innings Sunday, but lost after giving up four runs--two unearned--in a game in which the Twins committed two errors, one by Tapani.

He had only himself to blame for the Angels’ first run, which he set up with two out in the second inning by walking Dante Bichette and hitting John Orton with a pitch. Rick Schu’s single down the third-base line, the Angels’ first hit of the game, scored Bichette.

“Hitting a guy with two out like that wasn’t good,” Tapani said.

The three-run, two-error third inning did in his chances for a victory.

Tapani gave up a double to Max Venable to open the inning. Mark McLemore laid down a sacrifice bunt, but Tapani slipped and fell as he attempted to field the ball, with Venable reaching third and McLemore safe at first.

“I don’t know, the grass gave way,” Tapani said. “It was just a little bit wet. I took out a big divot.”

McLemore moved over on Wally Joyner’s infield out, and Tapani gave up a two-run single to Chili Davis. An out later, Bichette lofted a fly ball to deep center field, but Puckett lost it in the sun, and Davis scored, with Bichette going all the way to third.

The errors are not all of a kind, and they are not the sort of thing for which there is a tonic or cure.

“Today was a good example,” Kelly said. “The guy just slipped on the turf. Puckett lost a ball in the sun. What can you tell them? (Angel) Wally Joyner throws a ball into the stands (Friday) . . . What are you going to do, have them practice throwing to third?”

Tapani just hopes that he will be able to continue pitching well, and trusts that the defensive slips such as his own will go away.

“It’s a funny game, I guess,” Tapani said. “I hope down the road it’s not the other way around, where we’re making the plays but the pitching has fallen apart.”