weekend update

The Twins had a solid weekend going 1-1 to bring their spring record to 4-1.

• Saturday the Twins defeated the Yankees 7-3 for their 4th straight win this spring.
• Francisco Liriano got the start and wasn't very sharp giving up 3 runs in 2 innings against the Yankees A lineup. I am not putting too much into it since it was his first start of the season and something to work on. I look for him to improve every start and will be ready to go April 7th.
• Brian Buscher and Delmon Young continued their strong start to spring training. Buscher had 2 hits and 2 rbi's while Young was 3-3 to improve to 6-7 this spring.
• The Bullpen really pitched well pitching 7 shutout innings in relief of Liriano and looked good.

• Yesterday the Twins suffered their first defeat of the spring dropping a tough 2-1 defeat to the Red Sox to even their series at 1-1 in the battle for the Mayor's cup in Fort Myers.
• Kevin Slowey got his first start of the spring and was very impressive going 2 hitless innings puncuated by a strikeout of David Ortiz.
• Glen Perkins came in for Slowey and pitched 3 shutout innings and was very impressive himself. Thus far this spring he has pitched 5 shutout innings and I look for Perkins to make the biggest jump of any starter this season. I am very high on Glen and expect big things for him and the Twins.
• In a game where there wasn't much hitting the bright spot was a rbi single by Deibinson Romero in the 8th inning. I look for him to rebound himself this year after a injury plagued season and some doubts about how high of a ceiling he really has.
• The Twins have today off and the next few days they have games against a couple teams from the World Baseball Clinic.

The Twins got a scare this weekend with Joe Nathan pulling out of the WBC because of shoulder soreness. It appears that he will be ok, but it is something that is worth keeping an eye on because we really don't have a replacement if Nathan has to miss any regular season time. They would probably have to move Jesse Crain or Luis Ayala into the closer role and that definatly a drop off. He might pitch on wednesday against The Netherlands WBC team, so it is something to keep track of because he is probably the most indespensible player on the whole team.