Perhaps the most prestigious of all pointless spring training titles, the Mayor's cup will once again spend the year with the Boston Red Sox, who took down the Twins 11-5 to take the best-of-7 series. The Sox will square off with the Twins again before the season starts, but hold a clinching 4-2 advantage.
The middle of the Red Sox order was responsible for most of the damage today, as Pedroia, Martinez, and Youkilis combined to go an amazing 11-13. David Ortiz, who had been late on a few fastballs earlier in the game, turned on one in the fourth inning and knocked it into the seats in left field for a 3-run homer. Tug Hullet contributes a 3-run shot of his own in the sixth inning.
Despite giving up 4 runs in only 4.2 innings, Clay Buchholz looked very good. He was locating his fastball (which was sitting around 93 MPH) much better than he had earlier in the spring, and was baffling batters with his change. He retired the last ten Twins he faced, and recorded 7 strikeouts without allowing a walk.
In relief, Scott Atchison, Hideki Okajima, and Ramon Ramirez combined for 3 scoreless innings. Papelbon gave up an unearned run in 1.1 innings thanks to his own errant pickoff throw, but only allowed a single while recording 2 strikeouts.