Cardinals 9, Twins 2: Some Decisions Make Themselves

There have been a lot of interesting roster announcements in the last day and a half, but some things were more of less destined before the spring even began. Non-roster invitees Brendan Wise and Brad Thompson, for example, have made it through the first few spring cuts but have never been names discussed as potential dark horse roster candidates.

Which means that their performances this afternoon, as unfortunate as they were, don't carry sway in terms of the decisions that the front office will have to make in the coming days. But it does put them in the line of fire if the Twins do tomorrow what they've done on the last two Mondays, and make additional cuts. Wise pitched the seventh, allowing a two-run homer to somebody called Shane Robinson. Thompson did somewhat worse, allowing four runs off a single, two doubles, a homer and a walk. It wasn't pretty.

Nick Blackburn, on the other hand, pitched well. He struck out five, walked one and allowed just a pair of hits - one of which was a two-run homer off the bat of Matt Holliday. They were the only two runs Blackburn in his five innings of work.

The Minnesota offense struck just twice, with a Luke Hughes second-inning homer as the highlight.

We'll talk about roster stuff in more detail later tonight.

Non-Roster Invitees

Mike Hollimon (0-for-1)
Rene Rivera (0-for-1)
Sean Burroughs (1-for-4)
Brian Dinkelman (1-for-3, SB, K)
Brian Dozier (1-for-2, R)
Pedro Florimson (0-for-1)
Brendan Wise (1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R)
Brad Thompson (0.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R)

Special Guests

Aaron Hicks (0-for-1, K)
James Beresford (0-for-1)
Cole DeVries (0.1 IP)