Grapefruit Preview: Minnesota Twins at Miami Marlins, 1:05 PM

Major League Baseball is approaching the final stretch of its Spring Training schedule and games will finally start to count in just a couple weeks.

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Still, there are roster spots to be won and kinks to be worked out down in Arizona and Florida, and next on the docket for the Miami Marlins is today’s contest with the visiting Minnesota Twins at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium, 1:05 PM ET.

The Twins (7-9) send Phil Hughes to the mound opposite Jarred Cosart for the Marlins (10-7), who had a rough outing his last time out. Cosart (8.22 ERA this spring) gave up four runs and eight hits in 3.2 innings in his last spring start against the St. Louis Cardinals. He couldn’t throw strikes, with exactly half of his 64 pitches missing the zone. He issued three walks all told while striking out just one.

Today Cosart, who is slated to fit in as the Marlins three or four starter once the season begins, looks to remedy his command issues and gain some much-needed confidence before the calendar turns to April. Cosart should have at least one more spring start after today.

Mike Redmond‘s lineup for Sunday afternoon:

1. Dee Gordon, 2B
2. Martin Prado, 3B
3. Giancarlo Stanton, RF
4. Michael Morse, 1B
5. Marcell Ozuna, CF
6. Ichiro Suzuki, LF
7. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
8. Adeiny Hechavarria, SS
9. Jarred Cosart, P

Today’s order should closely resemble the lineup card Miami’s skipper will present on Opening Day against the Atlanta Braves. The exception of course being a lack of Christian Yelich, who just formally made official his seven year contract extension on Sunday. Yelich ironically hasn’t played much since news of the contract surfaced on Wednesday, but there’s no doubt his lovely swing and Gold Glove are beyond ready for the season to start.

The Twins won the first spring meeting between these two teams, 7-6 in Fort Myers on March 12.

There is no TV or Marlins radio for today’s game but the Twins radio broadcast can be heard on MLB.com’s Gameday Audio.

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