FORT MYERS, FLA . – Eddie Rosario's bat is his ticket to the majors, but he's showing that he can also contribute with his glove. Rosario made two nice defensive plays and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly on Wednesday in the Twins' 3-2 split-squad loss to Baltimore at Hammond Stadium.
Rosario is not expected to head north with the club when camp breaks, but he could be one of the first players called up if someone goes down on the major league club.
Former Twin Delmon Young led off the second with a shot into the left-field corner that sure looked like a double. But Rosario hurried over to grab the ball and threw to second baseman Brian Dozier to tag Young out by a hair. That was the second time he's thrown out a runner at second this spring. Rosario also rushed in to make a nice play on Jonathan Schoop's liner in the seventh.
The Twins' first run of the game came after Rosario fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches — one clearly off the plate — to keep the at-bat alive before hitting a sacrifice fly to left that scored Dozier. Rosario is batting .269 in camp, but his five RBI are third most on the team.
"He's an aggressive free swinger," said bench coach Joe Vavra, who managed the team while Paul Molitor was with the other half of the split squad against Boston. "He swings at anything that comes up there. Looks like he's a bad-ball hitter who is going to make contact. There have been a number of guys in the league who have done that and have been successful.''
