SARASOTA, FLA. – Twins manager Rocco Baldelli watched the first five innings of the game against Baltimore in Sarasota before driving back down I-75 to Fort Myers to catch the night game against the Rays.
He probably had seen enough, as the Twins were down by five runs through five innings and went on to lose 7-2 in their spring training opener.
Twins righthander Chase De Jong hoped to pitch two innings but was done after throwing 28 pitches in the first inning, including one that Chase Sisco belted for a three-run homer to left.
"I didn't really have anything but the fastball today," said De Jong, the 25-year-old who lost his spot on the Twins 40-man roster when the team signed Martin Perez last month.
Lefthander Gabriel Moya gave up three runs in the third on a sacrifice fly and a two-run homer by Yusneil Diaz as Baltimore took a 6-1 lead. Twins third baseman Randy Cesar's error on Christopher Bostick's grounder in the seventh put the leadoff man on, and Rio Ruiz's sacrifice fly accounted for Baltimore's final run.
The Twins scored single runs in the second inning, when LaMonte Wade raced home on a groundout, and the seventh, when Jordan Gore, one of several minor leaguers brought in as extra players, scored on an error.
La VELLE E. NEAL III
