Red Sox Beat Twins 7-6 On Ortiz, Reddick Blasts
FORT MYERS, Fla. (CBS/AP) - Not much to remember from Carl Crawford's spring training debut for the Boston Red Sox.
The $142 million man was 0 for 3 in Monday's 7-6 win over the Minnesota Twins. David Ortiz hit a three-run homer, and Josh Reddick hit a two-run drive.
"First time I've ever seen Carl in a Boston uniform, so that was good," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "It's just two games into spring training."
Crawford was excited to get his first at-bats in a Red Sox uniform out of the way.
"So I just was kinda trying to take it all in and try to focus on the game at the same time," said Crawford.
Crawford spoke to WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Jonny Miller and other reporters after the game.
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Daisuke Matsuzaka allowed one run in two innings -- on a Jason Kubel homer in the first. He struck out one and walked one, throwing 14 of 25 pitches for strikes.
"Very good velocity. That was exciting to see that, especially early on," Francona said. "Very aggressive with his fastball. Had some good life to it. I was excited about that."
Matsuzaka, who has battled control issues, was satisfied with his appearance.
"As it's the first outing of the spring season, the fastball is running pretty well," he said through interpreter Kenta Yamada. "That's something I'm very confident with. Overall, I think I did a very good job as a first outing."
Twins starter Nick Blackburn gave up two hits in two scoreless innings, throwing 18 of 28 pitches for strikes.
"He went right at the hitters," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Good velocity and good movement."
Blackburn is adding a slider back to his repertoire following a 10-12 record last year.
"Last year, I didn't have a great season," he said. "But I learned how to pitch without my slider, which is something that I haven't been able to do for my entire career. Hopefully adding that slider will make it a little easier, won't have to rely on the sinker as much, kind of mix it up, give me an extra pitch."
Loser James Hoey gave up Reddick's seventh-inning homer.
"Good arm, great arm," Gardenhire said. "The ball really came out of his hand. I mean the ball was flying out there today. But even the pitch the guy went deep on was not a bad pitch. It was down, with an angle and good velocity. I like to see that velocity."
Luke Hughes hit a two-run homer in the third against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.
Ortiz's homer to right field came with Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia on base. Ortiz has gotten off to slow starts the
past two years. Although, it's spring training, Francona was happy with the swing Ortiz took.
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"I think it counts," Francona said. "I'd much rather see guys swing good than not good. The way they go through spring training, there's no way, you don't see it very often where guys get hot, because they don't play every day. They're not supposed to. If we played David a week in a row, he would probably find his swing, but he'd find it in February. We need guys to grow into it or build into it. I was excited because he kept that ball fair. He kept his hands in and didn't hook it foul. It was a pretty swing."
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