The Twins lost 4-3 in a game marked by defensive mistakes. Trevor Plouffe, Joe Mauer and Danny Santana all committed errors, and Darin Mastroianni slung a ball back toward the infield that got away from the cutoff man, leading to runners advancing.
But there were some good signs.
Folks, Samuel Deduno was nasty today, throwing three shutout innings during which he gave up no hits and struck out two while walking one. He's given up one earned run over 9.2 innings this spring and looks to be leading the pack in the race for the No. 5 starter's spot. I would put Kyle Gibson second, Vance Worley third and Scott Diamond fourth. It's really impressive that he looks so good following shoulder surgery. You usually expect a pitcher coming off such surgery to struggle for awhile. So far, Deduno has been far from that.
Aaron Hicks singled in his first at-bat.
Jason Kubel drew two walks.
Chris Herrmann was 2-for-2 and is batting .556.
Jason Bartlett is 0-for-17 this spring, so he went to a minor league spring game to get at-bats while playing six innings in the outfield - two innings at all three outfield spots.
``He did fine," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ``He hit the ball hard three times out of I think he got seven at-bats. Base hit his first time up, to center, and another lineout to second, and another base hit later. He got some at-bats. We need at-bats right now. Trying to spread these at bats around right now."
