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Tuesday, Apr. 4 8:05pm ET
Ortiz's two-out single wins it | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The Minnesota Twins have been saying all spring that they are an improved team from 1999. The Twins backed up the positive talk with action in Tuesday's 6-5, ninth-inning comeback victory over Tampa Bay. The 1999 Twins were 1-87 when trailing after eight innings. The 2000 Twins' fortunes looked just as bleak Tuesday night. They trailed 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth with one out and none on against Tampa Bay ace reliever Roberto Hernandez, who converted 43 of 47 save attempts in 1999. But Minnesota tied the score at 5-5 on a two-base error by second baseman Miguel Cairo on Todd Walker's grounder, followed by Cristian Guzman's RBI double. After Matt Lawton fouled out, David Ortiz capped the rally with an RBI single to beat Hernandez (0-1) and halt a nine-game Twins' losing streak including a season-ending eight-game skid in 1999. "Whatever the stats were on comebacks in 1999, this is a new year," said Minnesota's Jacque Jones, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI. "Baseball is strange that way. We hope to do a lot of things differently this year." The Twins' opening night crowd of 43,830 saw few home-team highlights in a 7-0 defeat. But Tuesday's crowd of 7,020 got more for its money. "That was an exciting game," said Twins manager Tom Kelly. "I thought we played a lot better that we did Monday. Not too many good things happened to us early tonight, but we persevered and got it done. It would have been better to win like this last night with all the people here, but we'll take it." Tampa Bay, which jumped to a 5-2 lead, never trailed until the game-winning hit. "We'll just have to regroup and be ready to go (Wednesday)," said Devil Rays manager Larry Rothschild. "I thought the grounder we erred in the ninth was almost a routine play." Tampa wasted a career-best five-RBI game by John Flaherty, who had a three-run homer and a two-run double. "I thought Eric Milton pitched well, he just made two mistakes," Kelly said. "He got a couple of pitches up in the strike zone and Flaherty whacked them. Give Flaherty credit -- he had five RBI before you could blink." Hector Carrasco (1-0), the Twins' fourth pitcher, retired the lone batter he faced with runners at second and third in the top of the ninth and got the win. Flaherty hit a three-run homer to put the Devil Rays ahead in the second following one-out singles by Greg Vaughn and Herbert Perry, then made it 5-2 with a two-run double in the fourth. Vaughn, signed as a free agent during the offseason, was 2-for-3 with a double and two walks. Ryan Rupe allowed three runs and six hits in six innings. Milton allowed five runs and seven hits in six innings and walked three. Minnesota closed to 3-2 in the second on two-out singles Jones and Marcus Jensen, and Torii Hunter's two-run double. Jones added RBI singles in the fourth and the eighth. Game notesWhen Gerald Williams homered leading off the game Monday, it was only the 17th time in 25 seasons a player homered leading off a team's season, according to the Elias Sport Bureau. It happened only three times in the 1990s but already twice in 2000s: Shannon Stewart homered Monday against Kansas City in Toronto's first at-bat. ... For the second season in a row, the Twins had a huge dropoff in attendance from opening day, going from 43,830 to 7,020. Last year's dropoff was from 45,601 to 9,220. ... Jensen, in his Twins debut, started at catcher and went 2-for-4. The other new starter from Monday's lineup was Ortiz at first base (for Ron Coomer). Tampa Bay was 66-2 last season when taking a lead into the ninth inning. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Tampa Bay Clubhouse Minnesota Clubhouse RECAPS Toronto 6 Kansas City 3
Minnesota 6
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