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Monday, Apr. 3 8:05pm ET
Williams homers on game's first pitch | |||||
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GAME LOG
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Charlie Brown threw out the first pitch, then Brad Radke really got his socks knocked off. Gerald Williams homered on the game's first pitch and Fred McGriff hit a grand slam as Steve Trachsel and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Minnesota Twins 7-0 Monday night. Both Radke and Devil Rays first base coach Jose Cardenal apparently had a premonition. Cardenal walked past Williams and told him to swing at the first pitch. "Jose Cardenal has 38 years in this game. When he talks, I listen," Williams said. Williams did as he was told, even though the pitch was high. "Yesterday I was thinking, 'What if I give up a homer on the first at-bat?' " Radke said. "And I started thinking if that had ever happened to me. I couldn't recall. But it has now. It was up at his neck, too." Williams went 3-for-3 off the Twins' ace, who will be subjected to trade rumors all season after turning down a $24 million offer and cutting off negotiations with the club that won a major league-low 63 games last year. Williams almost added a three-run homer off Bob Wells in the sixth, but settled for a long sacrifice fly instead. Trachsel, who joined the Devil Rays in January after nine seasons in the Chicago Cubs organization, won his first AL start after 186 NL starts. He gave up five hits in seven shutout innings with no walks and seven strikeouts. "I'll take seven scoreless any day. I'll take no walks, too," said Trachsel, who lost a major league-high 18 games last season. "I don't know how in the heck he lost so many games last year," said Radke, who gave up six earned runs on nine hits in five innings. The Twins opened their 40th season in Minneapolis by paying tribute to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, a Minnesota native who died last month, and Calvin Griffith, who brought the team from Washington, D.C., in 1961. Griffith died last October. Surrounded by Lucy, Linus and Snoopy, Charlie Brown threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a one-hopper to the plate. Then, Williams stepped up and sent Radke's first pitch into the left-field bleachers before much of the crowd of 43,830 had settled in. "It's not a situation where you want to be passive," Williams said. After Greg Vaughn scored from first despite a strained quadriceps muscle on John Flaherty's two-out double in the fourth, things fell apart for Radke in the fifth. With one out, Radke gave up three straight singles, including a bunt by Williams and an infield hit by Dave Martinez, before McGriff sent a low curveball for his sixth career grand slam and first since Sept. 21, 1993. The ball bounced off the top of the wall and should have been ruled a ground-rule double, but home plate umpire Rick Reed ruled otherwise. "He said it hit the seats," Radke said. "I didn't hear it hit anything. Plus, the ball came back, it didn't have a mark on it. But, whatever ..." Twins manager Tom Kelly agreed it wasn't worth arguing about. "It hit the top of the fence. Obviously, the home plate umpire made a mistake," Kelly said. "Big deal. We all make mistakes. I made about 12 of them. It had no bearing on the outcome." Williams' sacrifice fly made it 7-0 in the sixth. He sent left fielder Jacque Jones against the wall for a leaping catch. Williams, Vaughn and Trachsel are a few of the free agents the Devil Rays signed over the winter in hopes of rebounding from a 69-93 season. They also lured pitcher Juan Guzman and third baseman Vinny Castilla. The Twins, who haven't had a winning year since 1992, made precious few moves in the offseason and, in hopes of boosting attendance, unveiled their first mascot in 20 years -- a goofy-looking bear named "T.C." Twins rookie Matt LeCroy doubled his first time up but was thrown out at the plate by Martinez in right field to end the third inning. "I was going to swing at that first pitch, I didn't care where it was," LeCroy said. Sort of like Williams.
Game notes | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Tampa Bay Clubhouse Minnesota Clubhouse RECAPS Cleveland 4 Baltimore 1
Tampa Bay 7
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