DUNEDIN, FLA. – Instead of having Adalberto Mejia pitch in a minor league game Monday, the Twins had him ride the bus to Dunedin and follow Tyler Duffey to the mound against Toronto.
That put two of the favorites to land the Twins' No. 5 starter role in the same game, back-to-back.
"You can see what's going on," Twins pitching coach Neil Allen said. "They know what's going on. The whole organization knows what's going on."
Duffey, the righthander with the big breaking ball, tossed five shutout innings in the 8-2 victory over Toronto. Mejia, the lefty who hit 95 miles per hour a handful of times, shut out the Blue Jays for three innings before giving up back-to-back home runs to Justin Smoak and Ryan McBroom in the ninth.
That raised Mejia's spring ERA to 1.89. Did that hurt his chances?
"I like Mejia a lot," Allen said. "He holds runners on, mixes up his looks, the ball moves in the strike zone There's a lot there to like."
But Duffey's outing was his best of the spring, lowering his ERA to 3.86. Duffey was able to paint the corners with his fastball, but put him ahead in the count. He also threw some changeups, which he will need to do more of during the season. Duffey retired 10 of the last 11 Blue Jays he faced, an outing he can take off from.
"It felt like every inning I got a little bit better," Duffey said. "I was hitting my spots pretty well, mixing everything in. Got some quick outs when I needed them. Just tried to stay out of the middle of the plate."
Santana still set
Ervin Santana's trip to San Diego for the World Baseball Classic won't interfere with him starting for the Twins on Opening Day.
