Eddie Rosario stays hot, Twins slip past Pirates

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Eddie Rosario is already in a spring training rhythm: Show up at the park at 9 a.m., take batting practice at 11, collect two hits from 1 to 3 p.m., and be home by 4.

Rosario contributed a run-scoring double, a line-drive single and a pair of runs Tuesday, just another routine afternoon at Hammond Stadium, and the Twins rallied for a 6-5 victory over the Pirates.

The Twins' cleanup hitter has two hits in each of his three Grapefruit League starts so far, a pace that won't be easy to sustain but has the 27-year-old Puerto Rican looking like he's ready to skip March and go right to the regular season.

"It's pretty cool to watch. To roll right in, have those kind of at-bats and just keep them going, that's not something you normally see," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "You start to see really quickly that he can do some pretty unique things with the bat in his hands."

Tyler Duffey threw two hitless innings in his second start of the spring, walking two but stranding them both. Matt Magill hit 97 mph on the radar gun with his fastball, but was touched for three runs on four hits in his second inning of work.

Trailing 4-2, the Twins battered Pirates righthander Brandon Maurer for four runs in the fifth, with Class A catcher Ryan Jeffers delivering a sharp two-out, two-run single to left field, putting Minnesota, now 3-2 this spring, in the lead for good.