Price whiffs 5 in sharp outing, Rays top Twins

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (AP) — Coming off a Cy Young season, David Price could probably afford to take it easy early in spring training.

“That’s not the way I operate,” he said.

Price struck out five in three shutout innings and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Minnesota Twins 7-2 on Sunday.

“I’m not good enough to just flip a switch,” said Price, who was 20-5 with a 2.56 ERA last season. “April is less than a month away. I’m not that type of person. I don’t care if it’s backyard baseball or whatever. If it’s my day to pitch and my day to play, I’m going to take it serious. I don’t want to come out here and get it handed to me and be like, ‘Oh, OK, I don’t care, this is just spring training.’”

Twins newcomer Mike Pelfrey also made an effective start, tossing three shutout innings.

Rays designated hitter Luke Scott exited the game after one at-bat. He said his right hamstring tightened up on him and he left as a precaution. He hopes to be back in the lineup in a few days.

“The muscle’s just tight,” Scott said. “I think on a cold day, a little bit of fatigue from working my legs. I worked my legs pretty hard this week. I’ve had stuff like this many times before. I’m not worried.”

Kelly Johnson doubled in two runs and Chris Gimenez hit a two-run homer for Tampa Bay. Price, last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner, allowed one hit.

Coming off Tommy John surgery and competing for a spot in the rotation, Pelfrey yielded one hit and walked one as the former Mets right-hander rebounded from a shaky outing in his spring debut.

Trevor Plouffe had two hits and an RBI for Minnesota.

“It was kind of a tough day, but you kind of know that going in because Price, he was throwing the ball really good,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

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