Minnesota Twins Suffer First Spring Loss, Lose to Tampa Bay Rays
Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
We knew it had to end eventually. The Minnesota Twins finally lost on Sunday afternoon falling to the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-3.
Ricky Nolasco started the ballgame for the Twins, his first spring appearance in a Twins uniform. It sounded like Nolasco gave up some well hit balls, but worked out of jams of doubles in both of his two innings of work.
The scoring started in the bottom of the third inning when the Rays puts up a three spot. The first run came off of a throwing error from right fielder Oswaldo Arcia. Arcia was trying to cut down a runner at third, when a weird bounce put the ball in the stands. The radio call didn’t put any blame on Arcia, but squarely on the bounce. Right after that encounter, Anthony Swarzak gave up a two-run shot to All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria.
The score stayed that way until the top of the fifth when Oswaldo Arcia hit a solo shot, which was matched by a solo jack the next inning by Jerry Sands of the Rays. The Sands homer came off of Brooks Raley who had some struggles in his second inning of work including the solo shot and two doubles. Catcher Dan Rohlfing threw out a potential base stealer attempting to take third.
In the seventh inning, Twins third base prospect hit a solo shot of his own that hit off of the Tiki Bar roof beyond center field and Dan Gladden got really excited about that. Alex Meyer came in the bottom of the seventh and gave up three hits and a run in his first inning of work. In the eighth, Meyer gave up a RBI double scoring a man who reached on a Brandon Waring throwing error.
Twins put together a small rally in the ninth with Max Kepler scoring on a Jorge Polanco single, but that’s all they could muster.
No Twins had multiple hits in the ball game. Jason Kubel in his fight to make the roster has yet to notch a hit this spring.
Pitching for the Twins on Sunday: Ricky Nolasco, Anthony Swarzak, Brooks Raley and Alex Meyer.
Twins play split squad on Monday. Half of the gang is visiting the Baltimore Orioles, the other half is hosting the Toronto Blue Jays. Both games starts at noon central. The home game against Toronto will be on Fox Sports North and the Twins Radio Network.