Chris Tillman helps Baltimore Orioles to 3-1 victory against Minnesota Twins – MLB Spring Training
Baltimore Orioles defeated Minnesota Twins 3-1 at the Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Florida on March 16 in their Grapefruit encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball Spring Training Session.
Chris Tillman was absolutely outstanding for the Orioles as he gave up only four hits, one run and two walks in just over 3 innings. The 23 year old starter is still pretty inexperienced at the MLB level. With an ordinary 3-5 record and 5.52 ERA in 2011,
Tillman was unable to live up to the expectations past season. He will be looking to make the most of available opportunities this spring to cement his place in the team.
Baltimore’s Manager Buck Showalter was very pleased to see a good performance from his starter. Chris Davis displayed some high quality hitting skills to let the Orioles take lead early during the contest. The first baseman struggled to achieve his desired
goals. He will be very satisfied with the he played, going 2 for 4 with a double.
"I honestly don't remember having the movement that I have right now -- I feel like everything's pretty sharp and pretty late," Blackburn said. "I could be completely wrong, but like I said, I feel like right now I have the best movement in possibly the
whole time. So we'll see. I've been getting enough bad swings that it kind of indicates that I could be right about that."
"He's a guy with a big upside," Showalter said. "I feel good about where he is. His arm is a lot further along this year than it was last year."
For Twins, Nick Blackburn pitched with great control and accuracy as he gave up just one hit and no runs over four innings to keep his side in the hunt. The right hander had a forearm surgery during the offseason and he was hoping to bounce back strongly.
Although, the Twins lost the game, they will be feeling very confident about the strength their pitching rotation displayed. It will be interesting to see if they can cross the finishing line in their next spring game.
Tags: