SARASOTA, FLA. – Nelson Cruz's next game will be in front of friends and family when the Twins play the Tigers on Saturday in a spring training game held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
And he is heading home with his power stroke intact.
Cruz blasted a long home run in his first plate appearance Thursday — his third in five games — as the Twins tied Baltimore 3-3 at Ed Smith Stadium. Cruz singled in his next two at-bats Thursday and is 7-for-14 with three homers and five RBI in spring training games.
Cruz and Miguel Sano will be part of the traveling party to the Dominican for the game. Several players who appeared in Thursday's game — including outfielder Eddie Rosario — will take part in the game. But the majority of the roster will consist of young players.
Cruz hammered a pitch from Orioles lefthander Keegan Akin and drove it well into the picnic area behind the left field fence. He singled to right in the third and then singled to left in the fifth.
Chris Davis' opposite-field single in the third scored Cedric Mullins for Baltimore's only run off Twins righthander Homer Bailey, who gave up four hits and struck out two.
"I think the main thing was get three up and downs, try to go through them as clean as you can," Bailey said. "It was really efficient. I like to work in the zone to out, don't want to walk people. I think I got behind in the count twice, which if you want to pick and choose something to find there it is."
Gilberto Celestino drove in Alex Avila with a fourth-inning single to put the Twins up 2-1, and in the ninth inning Alex Kirilloff hit his second home run of spring training. The Orioles scored twice in the bottom of the inning off Ryan Garton, and the teams agreed to call it a tie — the Twins' fourth this spring.
La VELLE E. NEAL III
