Red Sox Live Blog: David Ortiz, Dan Butler Go Deep As Sox Dominate Twins 10-2

by abournenesn

Mar 5, 2012

Red Sox Live Blog: David Ortiz, Dan Butler Go Deep As Sox Dominate Twins 10-2

Final, Red Sox 10-2: Jesse Carlson, the former Toronto Blue Jay who was signed as a free agent this offseason, came on to pitch the ninth for the Sox and retired the Twins in order.

Carlson got Wilkin Ramirez and Pedro Florimon to fly out to right field and then Sean Burroughs to fly out to left field.

The Sox take care of the Twins for the second straight day, giving them an early two-game edge in the teams' annual Mayor's Cup battle.

The Sox will be back in action against Baltimore on Tuesday, with the first pitch getting delivered at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Mid 8th: Red Sox, 10-2: Another quick inning and the Red Sox take another notable step toward the coveted — and I say this playfully — Mayor's Cup. Linares' struggles continue with another groundout.

Bottom 7th, Red Sox 10-2: We caught up with Clay Buchholz, who made his first trip to the mound since June 16, 2011. For the hurler, he just felt happy to be back.

"There’s a lot of work that went into it," Buchholz said. "A lot of time off. A lot of struggles. Yeah, it was definitely worth all the work to be out there and not feel any stress.”

Mid 7th, Red Sox 10-2: Nate Spears drives the ball to right field for a double, it fell just short of a round-tripper.

Dan Butler belts a three-run shot on a 1-2 pitch, certainly a boost of a confidence for the guy who's been putting in a lot of work this spring training.

End 6th, Red Sox 5-2: Luke Hughes started off the frame by grounding out to the shortstop Pedro Ciriaco. Pedro Florimon then grounded out, and Sean Burroughs flew out to left.

A nice bounce-back inning for Inman, who was touched for two runs in the fifth.

Mid 6th, Red Sox 5-2: The Red Sox go down in short order in the sixth.

End 5th, Red Sox 5-2: The Twins came alive in the fifth, finally pushing across a couple of runs. Mike Hollimon and Denard Span began the frame with back-to-back singles off Will Inman. After a balk by Inman resulted in both baserunners moving up a bag, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Joe Mauer provided RBI singles.

Steve Pearce grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to finally give Inman a few outs in the inning. After Josh Willingham drew a walk, Trevor Plouffe struck out to end the inning.

Mid 5th, Red Sox 5-0: David Ortiz ripped a double with one out in the frame, and was then lifted for a pinch runner in Lars Anderson.

Anderson wouldn't advance, though, as Minnesota pitcher Liam Hendricks struck out Juan Carlos Linares — pinch hitting for Darnell McDonald — and Josh Kroeger back to back.

Bottom 4th, Red Sox 5-0: Padilla got himself in some trouble early on, surrendering singles to three of the first batters he faced.

But the veteran showed poise with the bases loaded. He struck out Luke Hughes and caused Brian Dozier to ground out, albeit a very close call.

Before the madness, he started the inning with a 53 mph eephus pitch again. 

Mid 4th, Red Sox 5-0: The only notable part of that inning was Jose Iglesias' bunt for a single. Hey, the more you bring to the table, the more of an asset you are.

Iglesias also stole a base right after, too. Strong sequence in the inning for the youngster.

Bottom 3rd, Red Sox 5-0: Padilla quickly handled his business in the third inning, while also throwing his vaunted eephus pitch.

For those of you who don't know, the eephus pitch is just ball thrown with little velocity to catch a hitter off-guard. Padilla's 56-mph pitch elicited "ohhs and ahhs" from the crowd.

Three up, three down for the Twins and Padilla looked strong.

Mid 3rd, Red Sox 5-0: David Ortiz led off the inning with a moonshot over the right field fence. But the next three batters were retired.

However, Vicente Padilla is coming into pitch. Earlier in the day, Valentine said he was anxious to see Padilla. I've always thought of him as a bonafide contender for the fifth spot in the rotation.

I did a story on Padilla a few weeks ago on how he isn't interested in being a reliever. He's a confident guy and he's only two years removed from an Opening Day start with the Dodgers This marks his Red Sox debut, so let's see how it goes.

End 2nd, Red Sox 4-0: Clay Buchholz was a bit erratic with his command to start the inning. He plunked Josh Willingham with a pitch and proceeded to walk Ryan Doumit right after. He was visibly frustrated with himself.

But he rebounded in the next two at-bats, striking out Luke Hughes and Brian Dozier. We'll be speaking with him shortly, but interested to see how he characterizes this start. All in all, he issued two walks and hit one batter, but still came away without allowing a run.

Mid 2nd, Red Sox 4-0.: The Red Sox have jumped out to a 4-0, mostly due to the Twins' fielding errors.

An error in the outfield allowed Darnell McDonald's double to turn into a triple — Josh Kroeger drove him in. Then a Jason Marquis' wild pitch allowed Kelly Shoppach to score. Once Justin Morneau made a spectacular unassisted grab at first to get the out, he misfired on a throw to second to get the next out.

As a result, Marquis gets yanked.

Bottom 1st: Nick Punto sticks it to his old team! Well, not really. But the former Twins utilityman man and current Red Sox 2nd baseman executed a nice double play with Jose Iglesias to put out Joe Mauer.

Clay Buchholz also took forever in between pitches and threw a bunch of pickoffs to David Ortiz. Guess keeping the running game in check is on his mind.

Mid 1st: Twins starter Jason Marquis handled himself well in his first start of the spring, striking out Jose Iglesias and David Ortiz.

As Valentine noted earlier Monday, Iglesias still needs to work on his technique, but hitting at the top of the order should help his baseball acumen either way. Either way, the more at-bats, the more the team can evaluate him.

6:42 p.m.: Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said this would be one of the last games that David Ortiz would play at first base. It's good practice for the designated hitter — and Valentine mentioned there's a chance he'll do it during a few of the last games.

6:31 p.m.: As you await the start of the game, here are some recent stories to look over:

Carl Crawford Shut Down for Five to Seven Days, 'Probably Not' Realistic for Opening Day

Josh Beckett Tries To Develop Rapport With Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Bobby Valentine Semi-Predicted Twins 2B Tsuyoshi Nishioka's Injury Last Season

5:42 p.m.: Here is the Red Sox lineup:

Red Sox Lineup:
Jose Iglesias, SS
Ryan Sweeney, RF
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
David Ortiz, 1B
Darnell McDonald, DH
Josh Kroeger,LF
Kelly Shoppach, C                     Nick Punto, 2B                             Jason Repko, CF

Twins lineup:
Denard Span,
CF Tsuyoshi Nishioka,2B
Joe Mauer, C
Justin Morneau,1B
Josh Willingham, RF
Ryan Doumit, LF
Luke Hughes, DH
Brian Dozier, SS
Michael Hollimon, 3B
Jason Marquis, P

8 a.m. ET: The Red Sox got a head start in the pursuit of the Mayor's Cup — that is if Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire plans to give it up. Both teams will go at it again on Monday.

This time, the game will take place at Hammonds Stadium, the Twins' facility in Fort Myers. On Sunday, Red Sox first base prospect Lars Anderson was the unlikely hero to blow the game open against the Twins, belting a grand slam.

Andrew Miller was the standout on the pitching side of things, racking up three strikeouts after walking the first batter he faced.

Who will emerge in Monday's showdown and have an impact? You'll have to wait to see, but for now, we'll wait for Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine to release the lineup.

One thing we do know is that Clay Buchholz will toe the rubber for the Sox. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m., so check back throughout the day for updates.

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