Sunday, March 8th

Yesterday the Twins were brought down to earth with a beatdown by the hands of the Pirates. They lost the game 8-1 and really wasn't even that close. There were a few positives, but many more concerns than good things from yesterday.

• Scott Baker after signing his new contract pitched 4 good innings and only giving up a solo homerun to Adam Laroche in 4 innings of work. From then on the only pitchers that pitched good was RA Dickey who pitched a shutout inning and Mike Gosling with 2/3 of a inning. Matt Guerrier, Jose Mijares, Ben Julianel, and Rob Delaney had outings they would like to forget.
• The Twins continue to struggle at the plate only getting 5 hits. Alexi Casilla finally got going with 2 hits in 3 at bats. Michael Cuddyer had a triple and scored on a sacrafice fly by Brian Buscher. Joe Crede continues to slump going 0-3 and now is 1-15 on the spring. Im not worried yet but he needs to get going.
• Today, the Twins travel to Fort Lauderdale to take on the Orioles at noon. Francisco Liriano gets his 3rd spring start today for the Twins. In good news Joe Nathan is expected to pitch in relief for the Twins. Hopefully, that will put to rest concerns about his shoulder.
• More good news for the Twins is the Twins could soon be getting back some of their WBC players. Today Canada with Justin Mourneau and Jesse Crain take on Italy with Nick Punto with the loser going home. Probably both countries will be eliminated by Monday and they can get back to spring training.