Twins 7, Rays 3 in 1st Grapefruit League Game

[John Bonnes]

In their first official Grapefruit League game, the Twins defeated the Rays 7-3 this afternoon in Fort Myers. Manager Ron Gardenhire trotted out a lineup heavy on expected starting position players, but it was the backups who had the biggest impact, tallying three runs in the 6th inning to give the Twins a lead they would not relenquish.
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Carl Pavano started the game, giving up a 2-run home run in the first inning to Matt Joyce. He and Brian Duensing both pitched two innings in a game that featured five other Twins pitchers with major league experience: Matt Capps, Glen Perkins, Alex Burnett, Matt Maloney and Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak gave up the other run the Rays scored and the southpaw Maloney struck out the side in the eighth, albeit facing all left-handed hitters.

With plenty of attention being paid to the healthy of Joe Mauer, Denard Span and Justin Morneau, Twins trainers should be happy to hear that they all had a good start to their spring training season. Span had two hits, Mauer drove in the Twins first run and Morneau the second with a two-out opposite-field hit against the Rays shift. That tied the game at 2-2 going into the sixth inning.

Then the bench started doing some realy damage. Shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka had two hits, including a warning-track triple. Chris Parmelee also had two hits in his two at-bats, though he later ran into an out by failing to recognize that the runner in front of him had stopped at third base. Catcher Chris Herrmann, outfielder Joe Benson and second baseman Mike Hollimon also contributed RBI.

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