No frills baseball

The Extended Spring Training Twins dropped this afternoon's game 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Lee County Sportsplex. It was a game that would see Twins pitching give up 13 hits, while the Minnesota offense only generated 4 hits.

Wilson Ramos opened the scoring with a solo shot home run in the bottom of the first. We saw quite a few of the balls go deep right to about where Wilson's shot went over the wall, and I would say that at least three hits could have been saved if the outfielders had been playing for the wind. That wasn't done however.

Michael Allen turned in a quick first inning, but got into trouble in the second. After striking out the first batter, he allowed a walk and a single. A second single into the gap allowed the runner on second to score with out and put a runner on third, who came home on the next play, a sac-fly. The put the Pirates up 2-1.

Ricky Barrett made a rehab start in the third inning. He was supposed to pitch two, but threw too many pitches while he was on, allowing a single and a double while striking out 2. The runner he allowed the single to stole second and come home on the double, making it 3-2 Pirates.

Henry Reyes turned in a quick fourth inning, but the Twins could find no offense whatsoever in either the third or the four as it was three up/three down with Jon Waltenbury striking out in the third and both Esterlin De Los Santos and Mark Dolenc posting Ks in the fourth.

Reyes allowed a walk and a single in the fifth, but ended the inning on an outfield fly. Catcher Alexander Soto struck out to start the bottom of the fifth, but Waltenbury singled. Wang-Wei Lin lined out, before Wesley Conner hit what should have been a ground out. However, the Pirates short stop overthrew their first baseman, and Waltenbury jumped on the chance, making a tremendous run around the bases from first. I have to say, they beat him by like 10 feet with the play at the plate ("Oh, no," he insists, "I got in there.") and was way out, but the umpire called him safe, saying the Pirate catcher did not have the tag on him.

("No, really, I was in there.")

That would pretty much be it for the Twins offense, although Lin got a hit in the eighth, De Lo Santos got hit by a pitch in that inning, and Yangervis Solarte took a walk in the sixth.

Matt Fox pitched in the sixth, allowing a double and a single and striking out one. I was hoping for two innings out of him and Jesus Carnevale, who pitched the ninth, but there are too many kids in camp and most of the guys are only getting one inning every few days.

I should point out that the Twins also played an inner-squad match in the morning which I just caught the tail end of, to allow everyone some work.

Omar Alcala allowed a walk and a double single in the seventh. Fireballer Aaron Craig allowed two doubles in the eighth for one run, and Carnevale, who pitched very well the last time I saw him, allowed two doubles and a single in the ninth for the Pirates fifth and final run.

Lew Ford has played twice in rehab. He's having some soreness in his legs and is not expected to play again until Thursday. This happens to coincide with Tyler Robertson's next start and makes an extremely strong case for me requesting Thursday off so I can go watch the game.

I very much want to get Tyler on video so you call watch that flakey delivery of his, which he claims he has toned down some since he started playing for the Twins. (David Bromberg walks by and helpfully interjects that he is pitching tomorrow. Yes, but WHEN are you rapping for me, Mr. Bromberg?)

The boys are all in a state of disbelief over Anthony Swarzak's suspension. No one knows for sure, of if they know for sure, are not saying, but the general concesses seems to be that the was smoking pot. But to be 21 years old, have the kind of talent and potential he has, and then do something like that, is completely inconceivable to most of the players. That fact that Anthony is well liked and respected by most of his fellow players makes it even more difficult for them to deal with.

I met aussies Liam Hendriks, who served as our bat boy, today and Matt Ryan.

"No, I'm the kid who was an infielder that turned himself into a pitcher," Ryan tells me.

"You were a pitcher before," I point out.

"When I was sixteen!"

"Howie wanted to sign you as a pitcher before the Angels took you."

"How do you know all of this?"

"She knows EVERYthing," Tyler tells him.

"When you signed we got on the internet and looked you up," I explained to him. "We're nosey." We, refering of course, to the minor league message board at DTFC.

Elliott Biddle, another aussie, was our ball boy.

Anyway, video clips:

Mike Allen
Henry Reyes
Omar Alcala
Aaron Craig
Jesus Carnevale

I should note that I've only got the vaguest idea of what I'm shooting while I'm taking them, because the sun is much too bright to get any kind of clear resolution on that little screen. Additionally, since I'm shooting through a fence, there is almost no way for me to follow the play on the ball.

As with the video clips of the Miracle, this is an experiment in progress, so do not expect professional results in the first outings - or even very good results.

Still pictures are now uploaded, most of which are of Matt Fox. (This will make his girlfriend very happy.)

The Miracle program proved a great distraction to the boys. "You're right," Tyler says. "They really messed this up." I will discuss the Miracle program in more detail later on. We're still discovering errors.

Despite the loss, I was, on the whole, very pleased to be able to watch a game which did not include free food, fly t-shirts, dogs dancing on the dugout, and fun being rammed down my throat. It was a very pleasant afternoon, all things considered.

I believe I will put in a request to take Thursday off.