JUPITER, Fla. – Tommy Milone retired 12 of the 13 hitters he faced Monday, then pretended to be annoyed at the one blemish on his outing. Curse you, Matt Holliday.

"It would have been nice to get out of there clean," Milone said after the Twins rode his fast start to a 5-3 Grapefruit League victory over the Cardinals in Roger Dean Stadium. "I just hung a changeup there and I guess [Holliday] was waiting for it."

Oh well. Twins manager Paul Molitor, who will decide later this month whether Milone remains in the rotation, didn't seem bothered that Milone gave up a double, not after recording 11 consecutive outs to start the game. "It was fun to watch," Molitor said. "That's the way you draw it up. [Catcher John Hicks] didn't have to move his glove more than five times. … Can't do much better than that."

Milone was so effective, he came nowhere near his 60-pitch target in his four innings, and had to throw 20 more in the bullpen when he was done.

"It was fastball command, really. Just kind of keeping them off balance," he said. "That's obviously the name of the game, but it felt good."

St. Louis starter Mike Leake matched Milone by retiring the first 10 batters he faced and finishing with four scoreless innings. But the Twins strung together four singles against reliever Seth Maness in the fifth inning, producing two runs, one scoring on Hicks' sacrifice fly, the other on Jorge Polanco's infield hit.

Tom Wallace — Star Tribune, Star Tribune
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Tommy Milone (33)

Brandon Kintzler, Ryan O'Rourke and Aaron Thompson, fighting for spots in the Twins bullpen, each gave up a run on two hits. Rookies Alex Meyer and Nick Burdi got into trouble — Meyer walked the first batter he faced, Burdi gave up two hits and a long fly ball that Darin Mastroianni caught at the fence — but neither surrendered a run.

PHIL MILLER