Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
In an afternoon tilt today, the Kevin Correia and the Minnesota Twins took on the Pittsburgh Pirates at Hammond Stadium. The outcome, as many of the Twins’ Spring Training games have turned out as of late, was not in the Twins favor as the Pirates won 8-4 behind a strong start by their young stud pitcher, Gerrit Cole. Cole threw 3 solid innings, giving up 3 hits, one (unearned) run, and was able to get the win. As for the Twins, Correia and the defense behind him and the rest of the Twins’ staff did not have their best stuff this afternoon.
Correia gave up 4 runs over 3 innings of work, including a long two-run home run to his former teammate, Pedro Alvarez, in his 3rd and final inning of the game. Vance Worley came into the game in the 5th and pitched 3.2 innings while giving up 4 runs on 3 hits and struggled just like Correia . Deolis Guerra, a young hard-throwing Twins reliever, had another strong outing going one inning and striking out one while only zero hits. Kris Johnson, an acquisition from the Pirates this offseason, also got into the tail end of the game and gave up 3 hits over 1.1 innings.
Defensively, the Twins struggled committing 3 fielding errors but thankfully, none led to any unearned runs for the pitching staff.
While the game did not have too many highlights for the pitching staff, Aaron Hicks contributed with the first swing back from his elbow injury. In the 5th inning, Hicks came up to pinch-hit for Alex Pressley. After watching the first pitch go by for a ball, Hicks connected on the next pitch and sent it over the left center field wall for a solo home run. Chris Colabello also added his first Spring home run when he connected for a 2 run shot in the 6th, which ended up being the last runs the Twins would score today. As both of these players fight for starting spots in the lineup, today helped both of their chances but ended up not being enough to get the win.
The Pirates, who are projected to make a playoff push again this upcoming season, proved to be the better team this afternoon. Upcoming for the Twins, Phil Hughes will take the mound as they battle their crosstown Fort Myers’ rival, the Boston Red Sox, tomorrow at 1:05 ET, 12:05 CT.