Game Time: 1:05 pm

Scheduled starters: Matt Clement v. Kyle Lohse

The game will be on mlb.tv and on mlb audio (Minnesota broadcast)


Ft. Myers weather: 10 am observation at Page Field: Wind out of the east at 8 mph, visibility 8 miles, broken clouds at 1,800 feet, temperature 78F, DP 66F

Forecast: Cloudy, with a southeast wind less than 10 mph, becoming south, then southwest through the afternoon. There's a chance of light rain after 1 pm; it doesn't look like there's anything out there heavy enough to interfere with the game.

If it does rain, or even drizzle, this will be the first rain during Spring Training.


Anni

The game is also being televised by ESPN2.

Yesterday it was cloudy here with only slight showers. I doubt any rain in Fort Myers today would be substantial.. Still, they are on the coast so more moisture to draw from (if possible) than Ocala.

Sox starting lineup:

Crisp, cf
Loretta, 2b
Ortiz, dh
Ramirez, lf
Nixon, rf
Varitek, c
Youkilis, 1b
Graffanino, 3b
Gonzalez, ss

Clement, p

Sean McDonough on the call for ESPN.

God I miss him doing the Sox broadcasts!

Any reason why Lowell isn't starting?

They're probably showcasing Graffanino right now. If he doesn't play at all, it's hard to set his trade value.

i'm just psyched i can watch the game.....my first glance at the '06 sox....

Lowell may be sore from the beaning last night too. I hope it is just a showcasing job and Lowll is ok.

Shawn Wooten goes deep. 3-0. Why can't we get guys like that?

After having to listen to the YES broadcast team last night I really needed a Boston flavor to the game. This is a VERY welcome sight this afternoon.

Rudy Seanez is topping out at 90 mph on the ESPN gun... not going to cut it in the bigs if that's all he's throwing...

Durbin makes a juggling catch in the outfield and doubles Redmond off first base... Nice alert play...

Delcarmen looks to be throwing fairly well so far...

The game overall is a bit of a snoozer thus far. Some points of note:

- Clement is still having a hard time building any kind of relationship with the strike zone. This will be pretty key.

- Gonzalez looks fantastic at short, as we've heard. At the plate he is completely off, and it's obvious. Three fairly insipid grounders to short since I've turned it on.

- Crisp looks very, very confident. He is going to be a fan favorite in Fenway.

- Delcarmen's fastball looks like it needs a little more movement on it. Two balls in row hit right on the screws by Twins scrubbies.

- Chris Durbin is already massive and looks like he's got another 10 lbs. to put on up top. He could end up being a house.

That is all.

Edit: That is not all. Apparently if you leave a ball up around Loretta's eyes he will deposit it well over the left-field fence.

Crisp gets another hit... he's had an outstanding spring to date.

Loretta hits 2 run bomb, 3-2 twins

It's nice when your opponents are checking to see if Darrel May can pitch anymore.

To be fair, the second hit (the one hit to Durbin) was not a fastball. MDC needs to work on supplementary pitches. If he develops a good changeup or can control his curveball better, he'll be an effective MR.

Mark Loretta go BOOM. 3-2 Twins.

Loretta too. 3-2 off Loretta's 8th inning homer.

Thanks for the correction - I am multitasking and just caught a quick look at the play but thought fastball. Completely agree on the secondary pitches.

Easy Andy Pinckney showing some range to his left to make the play at first on a chopper towards the hole!

Holtz is looking pretty crafty. We could probably use some craft.

Edit: apparently craft is one of those things that can come and go.

Well Holtz looked good for a second there---

Hopefully Pickney performs well early in the AA season and maybe gets a call up to AAA in July. We really need some young INF depth. Rodney Nye isn't exactly exciting.

Pickney just turned 24 and put up a .897 OPS in Greenville. So, let's hope for the best for him in Portland

It's really discouraging that they are losing a majority of their ST games. The last 2 on 1 run games.

Sox show some spark in the 9th but strand the tying run on 3rd. Final score: 4-3 Twinkies.

No, what's discouraging is that some people actually put any stock into ST win-loss records.

Case and point: Our lineup of mostly bench players lost to the Yankees last night by only one run against most of their starters.

FINAL: Twins 4, SOX 3

WP - Kyle Lohse
S - B. Kemp

LP - Matt Clement

MINN - 4R, 10H, 0E
SOX - 3R, 10H, 1E

Here's last season's Spring Training final standings:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlbhist/standing...e=loc&year=2005

The White Sox finished 14-18.

The only thing that matters about spring training is getting out of it injury free.

Why? Do those games hold tie-breaker value or something?

No, no, just hate seeing them lose. Of course I know these games don't matter it just give you a better feel if the team is showing to be off to a good start.

I've got to admit, I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to see this game.

Granted, the Sox lost.

But Rudy Seanez didn't give up a run. Not one. How many other times has that happened this spring?

The good news --for me at least-- is that Alex Gonzalez went 0-3. I would have REALLY been bummed if I missed Seanez pitching a scoreless inning and A-Gon getting his 4th hit of the spring.

It wasn't a spectacular performance by Seanez. A-gon only has 3 hits? Hopefully his glove can really make up for that.