Gibson stingy as Twins' bats blister Red Sox

March 11th, 2017

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Right-hander tossed five scoreless innings, and went 2-for-3 with a two-run triple to lead the Twins to a 13-0 win over the split-squad Red Sox on Saturday at Hammond Stadium.
Left-hander started for the Red Sox and struggled, allowing six runs on five hits and four walks with four strikeouts over 2 1/3 innings. The Twins got out to an early 4-0 lead in the first, keyed by Sano's triple to right-center to score and Joe Mauer. ByungHo Park continued his strong spring with an RBI double before scoring on a two-out double from , who went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI doubles.

"Felt great out of the stretch, out of sync out of the windup," Owens said. "Still obviously some work to be done. Frustrating, but at the same time, you've got to understand this is a grind. Everyone is out here grinding. I'm not going to feel sorry for myself. I've got teammates out there trying to do their best."
Minnesota tacked on two more runs in the third, keyed by a run-scoring error by first baseman on a pickoff throw. added an RBI double to right. The Twins scored again in the fifth on Polanco's second RBI double of the game.

Gibson was efficient, scattering four hits and a walk with four strikeouts, while becoming the first Twins pitcher this spring to reach five innings. He retired eight of the last nine batters he faced, needing only 64 pitches.
"I avoided a lot of 2-0 counts," Gibson said. "For the most part, it was a lot of 1-1, and 0-1, which is what I need to do. When I struggled the last three years, it's been games where it's been 2-0 or 2-1 quite a bit. So I've been attacking the zone."

Minnesota loaded the bases in the sixth, and , competing for a bench spot, came through with a bloop two-run single to left.

, ranked as the Twins' No. 22 prospect by MLBPipeline.com, made a spectacular catch as he crashed into the wall to start the eighth, robbing Tzu-Wei Lin of extra bases.

Red Sox Up Next: The Red Sox travel to Clearwater to face the Phillies on Sunday at 1:07 p.m. ET, live on MLB.TV. Left-hander is scheduled to make this third Grapefruit League start. In five combined innings, he has allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Twins Up Next: The Twins have their first and only split-squad action of the spring on Sunday, as right-hander Phil Hughes will start at home against the Orioles, while right-hander will take the mound against the Pirates in Bradenton. Hughes is coming off surgery to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome, while Vogelsong is competing for the fifth spot in the rotation. Both games can be seen live on MLB.TV at 12:05 p.m. CT.
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