The Twins are putting what’s pretty much their “A” line up out there today against the visiting Yankees. Considering the 2+ hour bus ride from Tampa and the fact that this is a “split squad” day for the Yankees (they have a “home” game today, too), they actually brought a fair number of regular position players to Ft. Myers.
Denard Span was originally listed as the starting CF, but was a late scratch with a stiff neck. I don’t like the sound of that, but I’ll try not to get too worried… yet.
Nick Blackburn takes the mound for the Twins and Phil Hughes does so for the Evil Empire and, best of all (at least for those of you in Minnesota), the game is being shown on FSN. So, once again, we’ll open up a GameChat window for anyone interested in stopping by.
Here’s today’s lineups:
| YANKEES |
@ |
TWINS |
| Gardner, LF | Revere, LF | |
| Granderson, CF | Carroll, SS | |
| Swisher, RF | Mauer, C | |
| Ibanez, DH | Morneau, 1B | |
| Cervelli, C | Willingham, RF | |
| Vazquez, 3B | Doumit, LF | |
| Nix, J, 2B | Valencia, 3B | |
| Laird, 1B | Benson, CF | |
| Pena, R, SS | Casilla, A, 2B | |
| _Hughes, P, P | _Blackburn, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| NY Yankees | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | x | 5 | 8 | 0 |
Admit it, it’s always a good feeling to beat the Yankees, even if it’s just an early exhibition game.
Once again, the Twins pitching had a good day. Nick Blackburn got the job done in his three innings and the six relief pitchers that followed did just fine, as well. The difference between yesterday and today was that Twins hitters also showed up. Danny Valencia hit his second HR in as many days and today he was joined by Joe Benson and Mike Hollimon who had blasts of their own. None of the damage was done against Yankees starter Phil Hughes, but at this point, I’m just happy to see bats making good contact on baseballs for the Twins against anyone.
This is the week we’re likely to see a few of the 66 players that started the spring in the Big League clubhouse take their gear across the parking lot to the minor league complex. There aren’t likely to be many surprises, but we’ll soon start to get a better idea of who’s in serious consideration for those last roster spots and who isn’t.
– JC
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