Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Game Recap
Tonight, the Twins faced off against the Orioles in the Twins’ first night game of this Spring Training. The game had a solid start for Twins as they put up a 3 spot in the 2nd inning behind 3 run scoring singles off of the bats of Trevor Plouffe, newly acquired Kurt Suzuki, and Alex Presley. It appeared the Twins would be off to another solid Spring Training game and add another win early this March. However, things changed starting in the 3rd, and the Orioles never looked back.
The Orioles responded in the top of the 3rd and scored 5 runs in the inning. Mike Pelfrey started the game and worked just 2 1/3 innings giving up 4 hits and 2 runs before giving way to Jared Burton. Burton had a rough time getting through the 3rd after being tagged for 3 runs, all that came on a long ball by the catcher for the Orioles, Johnny Monell. To summarize Burton’s night in to less than 140 characters:
Some dude named Johnny Monell just hit a three run homer well into the new seats in right. O's lead 5-3.
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) March 6, 2014
After the Orioles added another run in the top of the 4th, the wheels fell off for the Twins in the 6th. With Scott Diamond pitching, a ground ball was hit to 2B Jorge Polanco, which was a Taylor Made Double Play ball. Unfortunately, for the Twins, it did not result in a double play. The youngster Polanco made a costly throwing error, that when all was said and done in the 6th, lead to 4 unearned runs. By the end of the 6th, the score was not in the Twins’ favor as it read 11-3, Orioles. The Twins put together a bit of a rally and added 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th but the scoring stopped there and ended up losing the game, 11-5. This is the Twins 3rd loss and dropped them to a record of 4-3 this March.
Something positive to take away from the game would occur after all of the scoring was done tonight. Twins’ relievers, Michael Tonkin and Deolis Guerra, combined to pitched a total of 3 scoreless innings while only allowing one hit, one walk, and striking out five. To describe how Guerra’s changeup was working tonight:
3 strikeouts in the 9th for Guerra, all on that Bugs Bunny change. Still say we might see him in the majors (somewhere) this season.
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) March 6, 2014
The Twins’ next Spring Training game comes up tomorrow Ricky Nolasco will the mound as they take on Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals at 1:05 ET, 12:05 CT.
Other News In other news surrounding the Twins, Pedro Florimon took the field today with the team. After being laid up from his emergency appendectomy, Florimon is making strides toward being ready around Opening Day.
Florimon taking field with rest of the group #mntwins
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) March 5, 2014
This was first time taking grounders with the group for Florimon since 2/17 appendectomy. #mntwins
— Mike BerardinoNDI (@MikeBerardino) March 5, 2014