Quick Spring Recap: Twins Beat Jays

Twins 8 Blue Jays 4

Ricky Romero pitched a good first inning. The second? He game up a single to Justin Morneau, then got a double play ball that Maicer Izturis threw past Adam Lind at first. One out where there should have been two, and a runner on second instead of bases empty. The next ground out should have ended the inning, but instead it was just the second out and then Ricky gave up a home run to Joe Benson and then a walk to Brian Dozier and that was the end of his day, at 35 pitches. Not good but, without the error, it could have been. He should have overcome the error, but then it's early. Wilner talked about Ricky's velocity, he only hit 89 MPH, but I normally ignore the radar for the first couple of times out. I wouldn't want pitchers going full out this early.

Well, this explains it the radar gun, from the National Post:

Of his 34 pitches, Romero estimated that 90-95% were sinkers. He seemed unconcerned that he threw 19 balls. He says is determined to revive the sinker, in the full knowledge that it can be difficult to control at times.

Other pitchers:

• Juan Perez: 0.1 inning. He also had an error behind him, this time it was Emilio Bonifacio who threw the ball wide of first from shortstop, but he got the next batter out to end the inning.
• Steve Delabar: 0.2 innings. Steve had a rough time too, 3 hits, 2 earned, 2 outs, One ground single, a double over Rajai Davis and a fly single.
• Bobby Korecky got the last out of Delabar's inning.
• Esmil Rogers: He got two quick outs, then gave up a double, single and a walk, giving up a run. Lucky Darin Mastroianni was caught trying to steal 3rd to end the inning.
• Michael Schwimer: 1.0, 1 walk, 1 k.
• Ramon Ortiz: 1.0, 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 earned.
• Dave Bush: 1.0, 1 walk, 1 home run, 2 earned, 1 k.
• Neil Wagner: 1.0, 1 hit, 1 walk.
• Ryan Rich Thompson: 1.0, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 k.

Hitters:

• Emilio Bonifacio: 1 for 3, double, run. He also made that error at short. I'm hoping he doesn't play much short during the season. He's hitting .300 this spring.
• Lance Zawadzki: 1 for 1. Hitting .714.
• Maicer Izturis: 0 for 3. He made the error at second that ended up costing Ricky 2 runs. He hasn't had a hit yet this spring, but Wilner talked about him making a 'productive out' in the first inning.
• Rajai Davis: 2 for 3, run, RBI. .333.
• Adam Lind: 1 for 3, home run, 2 RBI. .500.
• Henry Blanco: 1 for 3. .143.
• Ryan Langerhans: 0 for 2, 2 k. .222.
• Sean Ochinko: 0 for 2, k. .333.
• Andy LaRoche: 2 for 3, home run. .222.
• Anthony Gose: 1 for 1, walk, steal. .429.

That drops us to 2-3 on the spring. Tomorrow's game against the Astros.