Tuesday, March 17th

Today the Twins faced the Red Sox in the usual St. Patricks Day game. The Red Sox got the better of the Twins 9-5 as our pitchers continue to struggle lately. There were some good things and a few things that they need to improve on.

• Alexi Casilla and Denard Span continue to hit the cover off the ball. Casilla went 4-4 to raise his average to .438 this spring and appears ready for the season. Denard Span had 2 more hits along with his 1st homerun of the spring. He has had 4 hits the last 2 days and appears to be shaking off a slow start this spring.
• Justin Mourneau and Joe Crede continue to struggle at the plate as they combined to go 0-7 at the plate. I'm not that worried about either guy. Mourneau because you know what your going to get out of him. With Crede everyone acts like the sky is falling because he has not had a good spring. I totally disagree because he appears healthy and you have to remember that he missed the 2nd half last year so its going to take time to get his timing down.
• Scott Baker and Matt Guerrier got shelled giving up a combined 4 homeruns. With Baker im not worried at all because like Bert Blyleven Baker gives up alot of homeruns. Look at last year he gave up 20 homeruns in 173 innings. He is battling through a dead arm period and will pick it up. Im a little more concerned with Guerrier considering how he finished last year. When he is right he is a very solid pitcher, but when he is off a little bit he is meat. Overall I am happy with the spring the Twins pitchers have had.
• Brian Duensing threw 2 shutout innings in relief and has only given up 1 run all spring. I am going to start lobbying for the Twins to keep him as the second lefty along with Craig Breslow.
• Tommorrow the Twins travel to Bradenton to take on the Pirates with Francisco Liriano getting the start for the Twins. Gametime is at 12:05 with the Twins hoping to get back on track