Joe Nathan left the game in the third inning, after striking out Mike Cameron and then walking Bill Hall and J.D. Drew back-to-back. Over at his Strib blog, Joe C has a few choice quotes from Nathan, including this:
"Until we get that evaluation, I don’t want to come to any assumptions that I’m going to be fine or not," Nathan said. "But like I said, some tightness and achiness that they didn’t want to take a chance right now."
The "soreness" and "achiness" was in Nathan's surgically repaired right elbow, so it will be interesting to see what the doctors say when it's checked out tomorrow. Hopefully this is just one of those things where Nathan's elbow was simply sore, and we can simply be glad that the Twins did the right thing in removing him from the game. If it's something a bit more serious, well...we'll burn that bridge when we get there.
One the plus side, Francisco Liriano looked great in his two innings of work. He started the game, striking out three while allowing one hit and plunking Drew. Only one of the six outs he recorded was hit in the air.
The only other bright spot on the mound for the Twins was Jose Mijares, who struck out on in a perfect inning. Glen Perkins struggled, allowing Boston to get on the board and take a 2-0 lead in the fourth, while both Jeff Manship and Jose Lugo got battered in the seventh and eighth when the game got out of hand.
At the plate, Wilson Ramos picked up a double and an RBI in two at-bats. Daniel Valencia picked up an RBI single as well, in his only at-bat. Juan Portes picked up a couple of hits, with Jacque Jones and Brendan Harris picking up the other two hits for the Twins. Chris Parmelee tallied the team's only base on balls. In his first start of the spring, Ben Revere went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.
Spring training is all about the process, but in that process you want to avoid injuries. Let's hope Nathan's all right.