BRADENTON, Fla. – Hunter Owen homered off Lewis Thorpe with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 2-1 victory against the Twins on Friday.
Twins lose to Pirates on two-out home run in the bottom of the ninth
Hunter Owen connected off Lewis Thorpe to lift the Bucs to the Grapefruit League victory.
March 25, 2022 at 8:27PM
The Twins, who are now 3-6 in the Grapefruit League, benefited from a pair of two-out walks from Pirates starter Bryse Wilson in the first inning to take an early lead off Jake Cave's single to score Trevor Larnach.
But Pittsburgh tied it in the bottom of the first when Bryan Reynolds hit a solo homer off Dylan Bundy. Bundy pitched three innings, and the only hit off him was Reynolds' homer. He struck out four, and Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Bundy has stretched out to about 60 pitches, though he didn't throw up to that Friday.
Twins designated hitter Jose Miranda left the game in the sixth inning after he was hit in the jaw by the relay throw on an attempted double play. Miranda hit .344 with 30 home runs between Class AA Wichita and Class AAA St. Paul last season.
Baldelli said Miranda was "fine," and the injury wasn't a cause for future concern.
"No concussion, just a contusion on his jaw," Baldelli said. "Some seam marks, actually, on his face when I went out there. … We were actually going to leave him in the game if he was fine, if he didn't have any incidents, but there was — he got hit. So once that happened, he got a bunch of at-bats. He was done."
Reliever Jhon Romero also saw his first spring action for the Twins after the team picked him up off waivers from the Nationals this past Monday. He allowed one hit in his one inning, and Baldelli said he could be a bullpen candidate after making his MLB debut with five games late last season for Washington.
The eight Twins headed for arbitration are Royce Lewis, Joe Ryan, Jhoan Duran, Bailey Ober, Ryan Jeffers, Willi Castro, Griffin Jax and Trevor Larnach.
