Tampa Bay Rays defeat Minnesota Twins 6-2 - MLB Spring Training
Tampa Bay Rays defeated Minnesota Twins 6-2 at the Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on Tuesday, April 3 in their Grapefruit League encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball Spring Training Session.
For the Twins, Liam Hendriks put up decent numbers as he gave up just four runs and nine hits in over five innings pitched. Hendriks, who had a horrible time on the mound last season with a 6.17 ERA, is very excited to be on the Twin’s pitching rotation.
Without o shadow of a doubt, there is great room for improvement in his game play. However, the pitcher is ready to put in the extra effort to cement his place on Minnesota’s pitching rotation.
Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire liked what he saw from Hendriks. In a post game interview, Gardenhire stated that if Hendriks can continue his excellent form, he will not be removed from the rotation. It will be interesting to see if Hendriks can make most
of his opportunities to impress the skipper. Free agent Ryan Doumit went 2 for 5 to improve his spring average to .313.
"That'd be really good," Gardenhire said. "That makes a tough decision on what we have to do after that. We hope he does really, really well. We hope we have to make a very tough decision on what to do with him right away. I'll take my chances with that."
Tampa Bay Rays starter, Jeremy Hellickson finally had a solid outing as he gave up just two runs on six hits in four innings. Hellickson will be feeling very confident about the way he conducted himself on the field.
"I feel a little better every start, and I feel like I'm ready for Sunday," said Hellickson, who allowed 10 runs in a visit to the Twins on March 24. "I think I was throwing pitches that I normally would, not working on a lot of stuff."
With just ten wins and 16 losses, the Rays have struggled to execute their game plan since the start of 2012 Spring Training but they will be very pleased to steal a win over their arch rivals Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night.
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