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.
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
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.
Talk of competing for the best players or of a potential new owner wielding big bucks doesn’t change this: They are last in popularity among the four major men’s pro sports.
