Correia starts strong, Minnesota tops Toronto

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -- Kevin Correia threw three hitless innings and a split squad of Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays 12-2 Monday.

Correia, who was 9-13 last year, permitted just one walk.

"Trying to get command of all my pitches," he said.

Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ struggled, walking four and giving up a double and single while getting only one out.

Six Toronto pitchers combined for eight walks.

"Couldn't throw strikes," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "We were allergic to the strike zone today on the mound."

He indicated Happ was not excessively wild.

"It wasn't like he was scattered all over," Gibbons said. "He was close. So, you got to keep it on the zone. Let them hit the ball. That's the approach you got to have. looking for contact."

Happ said he's ready to put this outing behind him.

"Just anxious to get out there and do it again," he said.

"I felt like I was making good pitches," he said. "The ones they took were just off and I wasn't as sharp with my fastball command as I need to be."

Jermaine Mitchell homered for the Twins. He went 3 for 3 with a double and drove in four runs. Brian Dozier hit two doubles.

Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer for Toronto. He hit 36 homers last season.

"We don't worry about Edwin," Gibbons said.

The game featured the first review under Major League Baseball's expanded replay system.

Gibbons asked umpires to review a play in the sixth. Chris Rahl was called safe at first base when Toronto shortstop Munenori Kawasaki's throw pulled Jared Goedert off the bag.

After a wait of 2 minutes, 34 seconds, the call was upheld. In the eighth inning, replay confirmed another Twins runner was safe at first.

Starting time: Minnesota won its other split-squad game, with starter Vance Worley tossing three shutout innings in a 9-2 win over Baltimore. Manager Ron Gardenhire went with the team to Sarasota while bench coach Terry Steinbach stayed in Fort Myers.

"No complaints about our pitching," Steinbach said.

Double trouble: Twins second baseman Brian Dozier hit doubles in each of his first two at-bats. He had 33 doubles last year.

Bus leagues: The Blue Jays' 132-mile ride to Hammond Stadium was the longest of the spring for Toronto, four miles more than the one to JetBlue Park, the Fort Myers home of the Boston Red Sox. The Blue Jays' shortest trip is three miles to Clearwater's Bright House Field, the spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Twins return the bus trip favor on Saturday when they make the long trek to Dunedin to play the Blue Jays.