Prospects lead Twins to 6-5 Grapefruit League victory over Rays

Jake Rucker, Misael Urbina, Keoni Cavaco and Brian O’Keefe each singled during a three-run eighth-inning rally

The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 16, 2024 at 7:53PM
Twins infielder Jake Rucker was one of several prospects to show up big on Saturday in Fort Myers. (Charlie Neibergall/The Associated Press)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — On a day when Major League Baseball was busy promoting the future stars for each franchise, a group of Twins prospects carried their major-league counterparts to victory.

Minor-leaguers Jake Rucker, Misael Urbina, Keoni Cavaco and Brian O’Keefe each singled during a three-run eighth-inning rally, and Minnesota won a Grapefruit League game for the first time in a week, 6-5 over the Rays at Hammond Stadium. Each team’s top prospects later played a Spring Breakout Game, a new showcase for minor-leaguers.

Royce Lewis, the Twins’ RBI leader this spring, doubled home two runs and Carlos Santana singled him in during a three-run first inning, but the major-leaguers managed only one more hit, Byron Buxton’s fourth-inning double, in the six innings they played. Opening Day starter Pablo López surrendered four solo home runs, and the Twins appeared in danger of completing a winless week. López, who has never allowed four home runs in a regular-season game, watched Yandy Diaz smash a 1-2 changeup over the center field fence to open the game. Two matters later, Randy Arozarena crushed a nearly identical pitch, an 88-mph changeup on the inside corner, to deep left field, just missing the scoreboard atop the berm.

Three innings later, Arozarena struck again, this time leading off by golfing a low slider over the fence in right-center field to tie the game. And Richie Palacios put the Rays ahead for good in the same inning, ripping a 3-2 fastball from López, whose ERA this spring has climbed to 7.07, to right field.

But with two outs in the eighth, the Twins suddenly rallied. Urbina beat out a soft grounder to drive in Rucker and tie the score, and Cavaco, the Twins’ first-round pick in 2019, followed with a singlet left to put the Twins ahead. O’Keefe added an insurance run with a line-drive single to right — a run that became important when the Rays added a fifth run in the ninth.

Veteran relievers Jay Jackson and Steven Okert each pitched an inning of scoreless relief after López’s five-inning, 73-pitch start.

about the writer

about the writer

Phil Miller

Reporter

Phil Miller has covered the Twins for the Minnesota Star Tribune since 2013. Previously, he covered the University of Minnesota football team, and from 2007-09, he covered the Twins for the Pioneer Press.

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