It’s Spring Training so it doesn’t matter, but boy oh boy did the Twins take one on the chin Tuesday afternoon, losing 19-0 and nearly going hitless against the Tampa Bay Rays.
No Twins pitcher went longer than an inning – a norm during early exhibition games – and most of them gave up a bunch of runs, including starting pitching candidates Hector Santiago and Tyler Duffey.
Santiago allowed 5 runs in the first inning and Duffey gave up 6 runs in just 2/3 of an inning.
And it’s not like the Twins didn’t roll out some decent hitters. Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Kennys Vargas and Eduardo Escobar all played.
Neil Wagner is on to pitch the eighth with a 19-0 lead.
No Twins base runner has reached.
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) February 28, 2017
In the eighth inning, someone named Bengie Gonzalez hit a grounder through the hole to keep the Twins from getting no-hit. They would add two more hits in the inning. That was it for the day.
Oh well. On to the next meaningless spring game.
We posted spring records in runs, hits, and margin of victory, while our hurlers were perfect through seven.
Good day! #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/xgk4QyFYqy
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) February 28, 2017
