SPRING FLING: Today the Twins will play the 18th and 19th of 32 scheduled Grapefruit League games. The Twins also played one World Baseball Classic exhibition against Team Dominican Republic March 9. After today, seven more games will be played at Hammond Stadium and six more games will be played on the road. The Twins will enjoy their second scheduled off-day of the spring tomorrow before hosting the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon at Hammond Stadium.
WE DO TALK ABOUT JOSE: Jose Miranda is batting .429 (6-for-14) with two doubles, three home runs, five RBI, four walks, a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.770 OPS in six games this spring. Miranda is in his second major league spring training with the Twins after making his major league
debut on May 2, 2022 at Baltimore. He became one of four rookies in club history (since 1961) with at least 100 hits, 25 doubles, 15 home runs, 60 RBI and 25 walks in rookie season, joining Tony Oliva (1964), Gary Gaetti (1982) and Marty Cordova (1995).
OBER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS: Bailey Ober is making his third spring start today. He tossed 1.0 scoreless inning, with one walk and three strikeouts, in his first outing March 1 vs. Philadelphia and worked 2.0 perfect innings, with two strikeouts, in his last start March 8 at Toronto. Ober is in his third spring training with the Twins (also 2021-22). He re-claimed the jersey number 17 in the offseason, when Chris Archer departed via free agency; Ober debuted wearing uniform number 82, switched to 17 prior to 2022 spring training and had it for about a month until the Twins signed Archer, moving Ober to 16. Ober likes the number 17 because his dad wore it in college, playing
Division III basketball at Champlain College. Ober made the Twins Opening Day roster for first time in career in 2022 going 2-3, 3.21 ERA (56.0 IP, 20 ER) with 11 walks and 51 strikeouts in 11 starts. Missed time on the 15-day Injured List with a right groin strain from April 30-May 21 and went back
on the IL with the same injury from June 6-September 16.
The Twins had a sellout crowd of 8,568 at Hammond Stadium yesterday to watch the visiting New York Yankees. I’m always amazed at big crowds like that here in Florida for Spring Training games when everyone knows that visiting teams seldom if ever bring any “starters” to play. Yesterday’s Yankee visit was no exception with their starting line-up being Peraza, Volpe, Cabrera, Calhoun, Hicks, Ortega, Chaparro, Florial, and Narvaez. No exactly a “Murders Row”.