Minnesota Twins thrash Pittsburgh Pirates 11-6 – MLB Spring Training
Minnesota Twins continued to show signs of improvement as they thrashed Pittsburgh Pirates 11-6 at the McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida in their Grapefruit League encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball Spring Training Session.
Pirates’ pitcher James McDonald had a horrible time on the mound as he allowed too many scoring opportunities to the Twins’ batters. The guy looked complete out of sorts as he gave up ten runs and seven hits and seven walks in just over 3 innings.
It will not be wrong to say that McDonald played a key role in Pittsburgh’s 11-6 loss to the Twins. In a post game interview with a reporter, McDonald admitted that he had a poor day in the field.
McDonald should consider himself extremely lucky as it was just a spring training game. Had it been a regular game, he would have paid a heavy price for his unforced errors. With 9-9 record and 4.21 ERA in 31 starts, McDonald led the Pirates with 142 strikeouts
last season.
However, considering his effort against the Twins, it will be fair to say that he still has a great amount of room for improvement in his game play. It will be interesting to see if he can bounce back from a humiliating loss against the Twins.
"Just a bad day," McDonald said. "I didn't have my good stuff and I left the ball up the zone. Sometimes, these days happen. Luckily, it was a spring training game, rather than have it happen in August, September or next week when it counts."
"It's not frustrating; it's baseball," he further added. "I've had days when it's worse. Other days, I've made those same pitches and gave up one run."
Brian Dozier and Brian Dinkelman were outstanding for the Twins as they both hit two run home runs to help their team earn an impassable lead.
Matt Maloney started for the first time in his eight spring appearances and he gave up just one run and four hits in three innings. If Scott baker does not recover from his elbow injury, Maloney will have an excellent chance to secure a place on Twins’ rotation.
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