DUNEDIN, FLA. – Jake Cave homered and doubled twice and rookie Zander Wiel cracked a 450-blast over the batter's eye. But Toronto, held to only one hit over the first eight innings, rallied for two runs in the ninth inning to pull out a 3-3 tie with the Twins at TD Ballpark.
It's the Twins' third nine-inning tie in seven Grapefruit League games thus far; they are now 3-1-3 this spring.
"It's funny we've played all these ties. I've never seen it happen like this," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We're getting pretty good at it."
Cave, one of only two players in the Twins' lineup with major league experience, greeted Hyun-Jin Ryu, Toronto's $80 million free-agent pickup this offseason who was making his Blue Jays debut, by pulling a fastball into the right-field corner. Two innings later, he smacked a pitch from Anthony Bass over the right-field wall, his first homer of the spring. And he completed his day with an opposite-field double off Jays righthander Elvis Luciano.
"Jake has been great. Not only has he looked really good on the field, he's really fun," Baldelli said.
Wiel contributed a homer off Ryu, the former Dodger, as well, his second homer against the Blue Jays this week.
PHIL MILLER
