The Twins won their second straight game today with an extra innings win over the Cincinnati Reds 8-6. It was the team’s ‘A’ game for the day, so the key guys went along. An interesting note, whether it means anything or not, Carlos Gomez leadoff.

Now on with the notes:

** Glen Perkins got the start, and after a bad first outing over the weekend, Perkins put forth a pretty good effort. In two innings of work, Perkins allowed one run and two hits.

** Casey Daigle was on for two innings after Perkins and he struggled to say the least. In his two innings of work, Daigle allowed three hits, a walk and two runs. After Daigle, Brian Bass pitched two scoreless innings allowing nothing but two hits.

** Philip Humber was on for the seventh and pitched another solid inning for the second straight time out. Zach Day then entered for the eighth inning and pitched poorly yet again. In his inning of work, Day blew the lead giving up two hits, a walk and a three run homerun. Luckily the Twins fought back and Mariano Gomez pitched two good innings to earn the victory.

** The Twins brought out the power in the win making five of their nine hits extra-base hits.

** Carlos Gomez received four at-bats and had a pretty productive day. He went 1-2 overall, but also drew a walk and collected an RBI with his sacrifice fly. Gomez also collected one of the team’s three steals. After Gomez, the Twins gave Pridie one at-bat and he went 0-1.

** Another notable hitter was Alexi Casilla. Casilla went 1-3 on the day, but also drew a walk and stole two bases.

** Other hitting stats: Randy Ruiz (2-4, HR, 2 runs, 2 RBI), Joe Mauer (1-3; RBI), Justin Morneau (1-3), Delmon Young (1-3), Chris Basak (1-2; HR, run, 2 RBI) and Matt Macri (1-1, run).

The Twins also played a ‘B’, but other than knowing that Scott Baker pitched three scoreless innings, I don’t know much.

The Twins will play the Rays tomorrow, but don’t get to excited. Mauer, Cuddyer, Young, Morneau along with many other key guys, will be staying in Fort Myers. The good news is that all should play when the Twins take on the Yankees on ESPN Wednesday.

Last season, we started doing a ‘Making the Team’ series, and a lot of people enjoyed it, so we are going to do it yet again this spring. If you aren’t familiar with the series, this is what it is: every week we have an article breaking down all of the players vying for a roster spot. They will receive a chance rating of up, down or even. Every player will also have a comment explaining their current position. Remember, this is only players who are going after spots. Anybody who already has a spot is not on the list. Also, players who will make the roster but might be going after a starting spot will be included in the list.

We have a lot more players on the list this season, and it is a bit to long for one post. So we’ll do them on back-to-back days in stead.

With that, here is week one of the pitchers:

The Twins finally put a number in the wins column today after beating the Red Sox 8-3 for their first win of the spring. The pitching was very good, and the offense finally came around for eight runs and eleven total hits. Here are my notes from the game:

** Livan Hernandez took the mound for his first outing as a Twin and had a pretty good performance. Hernandez went two innings and gave up one run off two hits. The lone run came off of a homerun by Mike Lowell.

** After Hernandez relievers took over the remainder of the game. Matt Guerrier was in first and allowed just a walk in his inning of work. Pat Neshek took the mound next and allowed nothing while collecting a strikeout. The fifth went to Dennys Reyes for his first outing of spring and he allowed an unearned run and two hits.

** Julio DePaula was given two innings of work after Reyes, and had another good outing. In his two innings of work, DePaula allowed just two walks and no hits or runs. Bobby Korecky, the new International League single-season saves holder, pitched a solid eighth inning of work allowing just a run. The ninth went to Ricky Barrett and he rebounded with a nice outing after a poor start to his spring last week.

** Hitting wise the Twins improved a lot. On Saturday they took nine walks and a step forward. Today they collected eleven hits and didn’t ground into a single double play.

** Jon Knott knocked a ball out of the park in the third inning for his first homerun of the spring. It’ll be tough for him to make the roster as an outfielder, but there is that outside chance. Meanwhile, Brian Buscher had another pretty good outing to help his chances of making the team in a bench role. He went just 1-3 but was robbed of a hit by Sox second basemen Dustin Pedroia in his first at-bat.

** A centerfield update: Denard Span was given five at-bats as the starting centerfielder and went 1-5 with two runs scored. He also threw out a runner at second. Jason Pridie (Pry-Dee) came into the game to play right field and went 2-2 with a run and 2 RBI.

** Other notable hitters, all of whom collected a hit include: Jason Kubel, Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer, Mike Redmond, Howie Clark and Adam Everett.

** On a final note, four players stole bases for the Twins: Pridie, Span, Cuddyer and Punto.

I’ll have the first edition of Making the Team up tomorrow. The one on Monday will include the pitchers and the positions players will go up on Tuesday.

The Twins have two games tomorrow. Glen Perkins will pitch against the Reds in the team’s A game and in the B game against the Red Sox, Scott Baker will take on Josh Beckett (So much for the ‘B’).

The Twins outplayed the Red Sox all game, but gave up the lead late in the game, and were never able to recover. Thankfully, Spring Training isn’t about wins. You can go the entire month without a win and still make improvement. There were more good things to take away from the game as we got a look at more pitchers and position players:

** Randy Keisler for some reason got the start, and put the Twins in a hole early on. He wasn’t even able to go two full innings, giving up three runs on two hits in just 1.1 innings of work.

** Nick Blackburn finished up the second inning for Keisler, and went on to pitch a solid third. His final line was 1.2 innings, one hit and no runs allowed. A pretty solid way to start his spring. Rincon was up next for the fourth inning, he pitched a solid inning of work allowing no hits or runs while picking up a strikeout.

** After Rincon, Brian Duensing came into the game. He pitched better than the stats show. His final line was 1.1 innings, three hits and two runs. He took a liner off his leg and left the game. Carmen Cali entered and walked the first two batters, giving up runs that were then charged to Duensing. Cali just finished the inning and had no runs charged to him, but it wasn’t a very good outing.

** The last two pitchers were products of the New York Mets, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. Mulvey went two innings and had his ups and downs. He did allow five hits and a homerun, but only one run was charged, and it wasn’t bad for his first time out. Guerra pitched the ninth giving up two hits but no runs for a pretty nice outing.

** Offensively the Twins played much better, scoring six runs off eight total team hits.

** Carlos Gomez got the start in the much coveted centerfield, and continued to impress. He singled in his first at-bat, and then stole second on the next pitch which eventually put the Twins on the board. He also picked up his first RBI with a sacrifice fly. Jason Pridie (Pry-Dee) relieved him later in the game and went 1-2. Span meanwhile got the day off.

** Joe Mauer showed off his plate discipline, going 1-1 on the day along with two walks. Mike Lamb doubled and has hit pretty well thus far. Alexi Casilla also went 1-2 on the day with an RBI and a run scored.

** The Twins outfield has the potential to be one of the better defensive outfields if Gomez makes the team. We’ve already talked about Gomez’s defense yesterday, and today Young nailed a runner at second base. Put that with Cuddyer (last year’s assist leader) and you have some strong arms. Along with his fielding, Young also picked up his first RBI.

** Other notable hitters on the day were Matt Tolbert, who collected his first hit and Garrett Jones who also collected his first hit.

The Twins got a loss, but they finally showed good discipline receiving a total of nine walks as a team. The Twins will play Boston yet again tomorrow.

The second game of spring didn’t provide the Twins with their first win, as they lost their first home game to the Red Sox 8-3. But, as I mentioned after game one, these early games are to get timing back for the hitters and get back into throwing form for the pitchers. There were more positives from this game two:

**Boof Bonser pitched very well in his first outing of the year. Like the Twins will do all of their starters early on, Bonser pitched two innings. He allowed just one hit and struck out another in his two innings of work.

**Kevin Slowey would have made himself an early leader in the starting pitcher competition had he been able to get that final out in the fourth inning. Slowey pitched 1.2 awesome innings of baseball with two strikeouts and no runs. But them he hit a bump and allowed back-to-back homeruns to go from no runs to three.

**After Bonser and Slowey, Brian Bass entered the game. He’ll be competing for a bullpen spot this spring. He started off his spring with a one inning outing allowing two hits and a run. Nathan relieved him, and had his ups and downs. He allowed two hits and a run, but all of the outs that he recorded came via strikeout.

**Three pitchers pitched after Nathan, Philip Humber, Zach Day and Mariano Gomez. Humber improved from his rough start earlier this week with a solid inning of no-score baseball. Day walked the first two batters he faced, but rebounded to strikeout two hitters and allow no runs. Mariano Gomez then pitched the ninth and got a few quick outs. But the last out caused him some problems and he went on to allow two hits and three runs.

** Hitting wise, the Twins didn’t improve much from game one. They collected just eight hits as a team and scored just three runs.

**The centerfield competition continued to heat up. Denard Span got the start and singled in his first at-bat. He did nothing after that, but it was a nice start for him.

**Carlos Gomez then entered for Span and had his ups and downs. First, Gomes had an outfield assist nailing Pedroia at the plate by four steps. His throw was reportedly in the air the whole way. However, Gomez tried to make another throw a little later in the game when he didn’t have much of a chance at a play. Instead Coco Crisp advanced an extra base on the throw. Another good thing from Gomez however was him beating out a double-play ball.

**Brian Buscher helped his chances of making the team by hitting a homerun. Between his ability to play third and first, and being a power threat, Buscher has a very good chance to make the team.

**Other notable players included Delmon Young, who collected his first hit as a Twin, Justin Morneau, who picked up his first spring hit and Jeff Christy, who picked up two RBI in the ninth with two outs.

The game resulted in another Twins loss, but Gomez and Span showed good signs along with Bonser, Buscher and a few others. Spring isn’t really about winning every game, its about seeing others play and putting your team together. In the coming weeks, we should get a better look at several different players vying for spots.