FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Ron Gardenhire had a question for the reporters who gathered in his office after the Twins' 11-3 loss Tuesday night. "Ugliest game ever -- why do you want to talk about that?" the manager asked.
Well, there were a few items of interest worth talking about. Pedro Florimon's spring debut, for instance -- the shortstop went 0-for-3, turned a double play and got to a couple of ground balls. Not all of them, though.
"Looked like his legs were a little wobbly," Gardenhire said of the shortstop, who underwent an appendectomy on Feb. 17. "Ground ball up the middle, looked like he stumbled there."
But Florimon should be able to build up his strength in time for the season, the manager said.
As for starting pitcher Vance Worley, his pitching coach sounded as mystified as Worley himself about his awful outing. "He warmed up as well as I've ever seen," Rick Anderson said. "And all of a sudden, as soon as they [say] 'Play ball,' it goes all over. The more he tried and pressed, the more it elevated," resulting in seven runs over 2 2/3 innings.
One positive note for the Twins? Jason Bartlett finally caught his first fly ball. Playing center field over the final four innings, the former infielder raced to the center field fence on Desmond Jennings' deep fly ball in the sixth inning. "It was jumping up and down," Bartlett laughed about his view of the ball. "I was running on my heels."
If the run wasn't perfect, the catch was. Looking over his right shoulder as the ball came down, Bartlett slid onto the warning track to make a spectacular catch, his first ever as an outfielder.
"He's an athlete. He goes and takes balls out there every day, he takes balls off the bat, always trying to run them down," Gardenhire said. "I tell him, 'you're going to play them all [positions]. You're going to be moving all around out there. That's a long run, that's not an easy play. But he can do those things."
