It seemed like the middle of the season at spring training Monday.
Chuck Knoblauch made four bad throws, Pedro Martinez pitched four hitless innings and Mark McGwire homered.
Boston's Pedro Martinez delivers a pitch during the Red Sox' game against the Expos. Martinez pitched four hitless innings in Boston's 7-0 loss to Montreal on Monday in Ft. Myers, Fla.
"It was a rough day, that's about all I can say," Knoblauch said after making two throwing errors in the New York Yankees' 8-7 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Fort Myers, Fla.
On an afternoon when Roger Clemens was pounded for six runs and 11 hits in 31/3 innings, Knoblauch's arm was far more significant than that of the five-time Cy Young Award winner.
Knoblauch has made seven bad throws including four errors in his past three games. He had 15 errors in 82 games at second base last season and has five errors, four on throws, in 10 exhibition games.
"It was a bad day," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "You just have to fight your way through it. There's no magic formula. He's addressing it, he's working hard. The only thing we can do is support him."
At Fort Myers, Martinez struck out seven in his spring debut as the Boston Red Sox lost to the Montreal Expos 7-0.
"I felt pretty good," the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner said. "I felt like I am getting there. I am not quite hitting my spots yet. I'm not really consistent with my pitches, except the curveball. I need to feel more comfortable with my mechanics than I have."
At Jupiter, Fla., McGwire hit his second home run of the spring, a two-run drive that helped the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 in a split-squad game.
McGwire connected in the first inning off Ramon Martinez and added an RBI single in the fifth off Yorkis Perez, giving him four RBIs this spring.
Coming off knee surgery during the offseason, wouldn't say he was approaching full strength.
"There's a long ways to go," McGwire said.
In other games it was St. Louis 7, Houston 3; Atlanta 19, Cleveland 5; Texas 5, Pittsburgh 3; Kansas City 10, Detroit 4; Philadelphia 5, Toronto 4; Tampa Bay 7, Cincinnati 0; Chicago White Sox 3, Seattle 0; Seattle 4, Anaheim 3; Anaheim 6, Milwaukee 1; Arizona 7, Oakland 4; Chicago Cubs 11, Colorado 10; San Diego 6, San Francisco 3; Baltimore 11, Florida 4; and the New York Mets 3, Los Angeles 1.
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