FORT MYERS, Fla. — The entire Twins camp roster took the field for batting practice this morning, but that didn’t last long. A handful of players quickly took their turns in the cage, and then were dismissed in order to get dressed and packed for an early afternoon flight to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
It’s an unusual road mid-camp road trip, which will culminate in the Twins’ game with the Tigers tomorrow, in front of dozens of friends and family members of Miguel Sano, Nelson Cruz and Gilberto Celestino.
Now the remaining half of the roster — most of this season’s projected starters, actually — are on the field, completing their pregame workout for today’s 1 p.m. ET game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Jhoulys Chacin will face righthander Yonny Chirinos in that game, with former (twice) Twin Ryan LaMarre in the lineup for the Rays.
Bill Evers, who managed Rays’ minor-league teams for a decade, will manage the Twins against his old organization today, with Rocco Baldelli and bench coach Mike Bell traveling.
Here are the lineups for today’s game in Hammond Stadium (no TV):
RAYS
Arozarena RF
Choi 1B
Martinez DH
Wendle 3B
Smith C
LaMarre LF
O’Grady CF
Brosseau SS
Fox 2B
Chirinos RHP
TWINS
Kepler RF
Arraez 2B
Polanco SS
Donaldson 3B
Garver C
Gonzalez 1B
Adrianza DH
Cave CF
Kirilloff LF
Chacin RHP, followed by Clippard, May, LIttel
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La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts.
Phil Miller covered three seasons of Twins baseball, but that was at a different ballpark for a different newspaper. Now Miller returns to the baseball beat after joining the Star Tribune as the Gopher football writer in 2010, and he won't miss the dingy dome for a minute. In addition to the Twins and Gophers, Miller covered the Utah Jazz and the NBA for six years at The Salt Lake Tribune.
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