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  Friday, Mar. 3 1:05pm ET
Minnesota 10, Texas 9
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) _ The Minnesota Twins won their second spring exhibition game in as many days at Hammond Stadium on Friday, beating the Texas Rangers 10-9 in a split-squad game.

The Twins also won their other split squad game Friday, beating Cincinnati 5-3 at Sarasota.

At Fort Myers, Jon Schaeffer drove in the winning run in the bottom of the ninth with a two-out single to left off closer Chuck Smith, scoring Doug Mientkiewicz from second.

It was the first win of any kind for Minnesota against Texas in two years. The Twins lost all 13 meetings with the Rangers last year, including spring games.

``I just got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,'' Schaeffer said. ``He had thrown me a couple of breaking balls to start, then he put a fastball right down the middle, and I made contact.''

Both teams' starting pitchers, Twins left-hander Eric Milton and Rangers lefty Kenny Rogers, performed as advertised in just two innings of work, holding the opposition scoreless and combining to give up just two hits between them.

Milton, who pitched the fifth no-hitter in Twins history last Sept. 11 against Anaheim at the Metrodome, surrendered a hit to the first batter he faced, Royce Clayton. From that point, Milton overpowered the rest of the Rangers batting order, allowing one other runner besides Clayton, and that came as a result of an error by Twins third baseman Brian Richardson in the second inning.

``You can't really tell much in only two innings, but I felt fine out there,'' Milton said. ``I threw a couple of nice change-ups, and other than that I threw mostly fastballs.''

Matt LeCroy belted his second homer in two days, a solo shot to centerfield in the bottom of the sixth that gave the Twins a 6-2 lead. He finished 2-for-3 on the afternoon with two runs scored and an RBI.

Brian Richardson went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs, and left-fielder Chad Allen went 2-for-5 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored.

The Twins are back in action with a full squad on Saturday, when they face the Boston Red Sox on Boston's home field at City of Palms Park at 12:05 p.m. CST. Right-hander LaTroy Hawkins will start for Minnesota; Boston will send right-hander Brian Rose to the mound.

 


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