Red Sox lose to Twins in final Florida spring game

The Boston Red Sox took on the Minnesota Twins in CenturyLink Sports Complex in their last Spring Training game in Florida.

All signs point to David Ortiz having a wonderful last season with the Sox. On Monday Big Papi was honored with his very own golf cart and the crowd went wild. On Thursday he continued to make the fans smile when he hit his first home run of Spring Training. Ortiz his a solo homer off of Kyle Gibson in the fifth inning.

Papi wasn’t the only one hitting the ball out of the park on Thursday afternoon. Hanley Ramirez also hit a solo shot off of Gibson, his in the fourth inning.

Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts also added RBI to their Spring Training stats.

Clay Buchholz allowed only two hits in four innings. He struck out two and walked two. Will Clay have a bounce back year this year? His 4.50 Spring Training ERA isn’t great. Let’s hope he’s on his way to a better season than last year when he went 7-7 with 3.6 ERA and plenty of time spent on the DL.

Junichi Tazawa and Craig Kimbrel pitched one good inning each. All signs point to them being useful in the bull pen this season.

Going into the bottom of the seventh inning the Sox were up 4-2 and looked posed to collect their 13th win of the spring. But things took a bad turn with Tommy Layne pitching. Right away James Bereford hit a double and scored on Danny Santana‘s single. Things kept unraveling for Layne when Santana stole second and then scored on Darin Mastroianni‘s single. After a double steal and then a walk, Layne was lifted in favor of Anthony Varvaro who was not having a much better day himself. His pickoff error allowed Mastroianni to score. To make matters worse, the Twins tacked on one more run when Travis Harrison scored on Reynaldo Rodriguez‘s triple putting the Twins up 7-4.

The rest of the Sox offense only got one more hit in the rest of the game.

Game Notes

• The Red Sox start a pair of games on Friday 4/1 against the Toronto Blue Jays in Olympic Stadium.
• Before the game the Sox announced that Travis Shaw would start the season at third base instead of Pablo Sandoval. And the crowd went wild! It’s no secret that “Panda” isn’t a favorite among fans. Perhaps some time on the bench will light a fire under him.
• Opening Day is fast approaching. The Sox will be taking on Terry Francona‘s Indians in Cleveland’s Progressive Field where the current weather forecast is a chilly 46F with a good chance of rain. Let’s hope the weathermen are wrong, as usual.

Grades