KingFish
02-28-2002, 09:05 AM
Ya gotta love this story!
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- The Minnesota Twins did something Wednesday that seemed improbable a few months ago: take the field.
And they won, too.
Kurt Abbott hit a two-run homer, Todd Sears drove in three runs with two hits and Brad Radke started with two perfect innings in a 13-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Survivors of a trying offseason in which baseball owners attempted to eliminate them, the Twins wound up playing the first major league spring training game of the year.
"Everybody was excited," Radke said. "It's nice to get that first one out of the way. I didn't get anybody hurt, so it was a pretty good day."
Minnesota pounded 20 hits against the Reds, who left nearly all of their regulars at their camp in Sarasota.
"It was a good feeling," new Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "I doubted that I'd be very emotional, but heading into the game I could feel the butterflies a little bit. It was exciting. A long time coming with all that stuff we went through."
Catcher Jason LaRue and left fielder Adam Dunn were the only regulars in the Reds' starting lineup, and it showed. The Reds managed only one extra-base hit, made three errors and several more mistakes.
Dunn and center fielder Ruben Mateo lost A.J. Pierzynski's fly ball, and it fell in for a single in the second. In the seventh, right fielder Wily Pena and second baseman Mike Caruso collided on Matthew LeCroy's popup, leading to an error for Pena.
Two batters later, Casey Blake hit a deep fly that Jermaine Allensworth dropped at the wall for a triple.
On an unusually chilly, blustery day, Minnesota's ace didn't have to work too hard. Radke was up 2-0 before he threw a pitch and left with a 5-0 lead.
Cristian Guzman tripled and scored on Doug Mientkiewicz's double in the first, and Mientkiewicz scored on a wild pitch by Reds starter Elmer Dessens -- who surrendered five hits and five runs, two earned, in one-plus inning.
"They scored a couple runs early there and picked me up," Radke said. "I worked up a little bit of a sweat."
Everything went well for the Twins. Their first-round draft pick, 18-year-old catcher Joe Mauer, even ripped a single up the middle off in his first spring at-bat in the eighth.
"It was nice to get up there and see some pitching," Mauer said. "It was a fun game."
The bad parts for the Twins?
Just a couple of bruises. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz fouled a pitch off his lower right leg in the second inning and left the game. He won't travel with the team Wednesday, but he's fine.
"It turned out to be a pretty good day," Gardenhire said. "We have something to prove, and not because of contraction. We finished in second place last year, and people doubt that we can do better. These players are on a mission to prove they can play, that last year wasn't a fluke."
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- The Minnesota Twins did something Wednesday that seemed improbable a few months ago: take the field.
And they won, too.
Kurt Abbott hit a two-run homer, Todd Sears drove in three runs with two hits and Brad Radke started with two perfect innings in a 13-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
Survivors of a trying offseason in which baseball owners attempted to eliminate them, the Twins wound up playing the first major league spring training game of the year.
"Everybody was excited," Radke said. "It's nice to get that first one out of the way. I didn't get anybody hurt, so it was a pretty good day."
Minnesota pounded 20 hits against the Reds, who left nearly all of their regulars at their camp in Sarasota.
"It was a good feeling," new Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "I doubted that I'd be very emotional, but heading into the game I could feel the butterflies a little bit. It was exciting. A long time coming with all that stuff we went through."
Catcher Jason LaRue and left fielder Adam Dunn were the only regulars in the Reds' starting lineup, and it showed. The Reds managed only one extra-base hit, made three errors and several more mistakes.
Dunn and center fielder Ruben Mateo lost A.J. Pierzynski's fly ball, and it fell in for a single in the second. In the seventh, right fielder Wily Pena and second baseman Mike Caruso collided on Matthew LeCroy's popup, leading to an error for Pena.
Two batters later, Casey Blake hit a deep fly that Jermaine Allensworth dropped at the wall for a triple.
On an unusually chilly, blustery day, Minnesota's ace didn't have to work too hard. Radke was up 2-0 before he threw a pitch and left with a 5-0 lead.
Cristian Guzman tripled and scored on Doug Mientkiewicz's double in the first, and Mientkiewicz scored on a wild pitch by Reds starter Elmer Dessens -- who surrendered five hits and five runs, two earned, in one-plus inning.
"They scored a couple runs early there and picked me up," Radke said. "I worked up a little bit of a sweat."
Everything went well for the Twins. Their first-round draft pick, 18-year-old catcher Joe Mauer, even ripped a single up the middle off in his first spring at-bat in the eighth.
"It was nice to get up there and see some pitching," Mauer said. "It was a fun game."
The bad parts for the Twins?
Just a couple of bruises. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz fouled a pitch off his lower right leg in the second inning and left the game. He won't travel with the team Wednesday, but he's fine.
"It turned out to be a pretty good day," Gardenhire said. "We have something to prove, and not because of contraction. We finished in second place last year, and people doubt that we can do better. These players are on a mission to prove they can play, that last year wasn't a fluke."