Red Sox Begin Spring Schedule With 7-6 Loss To Twins

Red Sox - 010 032 0 - 6 11  2
Twins   - 050 002 0 - 7  6  0

Jeter Downs singled and homered and drove in three runs, and Bobby Dalbec and Michael Chavis also homered, but Boston dropped the spring's first Grapefruit League game to the Twins 7-6, on Sunday.

The Red Sox fell behind 5-1, but came back to grab a 6-5 lead (briefly) before losing it when Minnesota scored two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Manager Alex Cora was impressed with Downs, who has played only 12 games above Class A and will likely start the year in Portland (AA):

He's a good player. . . . We like him a lot. Slow heartbeat, it seems like. Even during the drills, he puts good swings on the ball. Going opposite field for the homer, and he sat on a breaking ball [for the hit] up the middle.

Cora put Kiké Hernández at the top of the order and he went went 1-for-2:

I'm going to challenge him. This is a guy, he can impact the baseball. He can hit extra-base hits. I do believe that there's more there. We'll see where it takes us. . . . We'll see. It's not that he's [definitely] going to be our [leadoff] guy, but I'll take a look at it.

Nathan Eovaldi faced eight batters (38 pitches) and recorded four outs, giving up two hits, one walk, and two runs. He also hit a batter.

First game, I was just excited. I felt like I was rushing through my delivery. My offspeed wasn't very good. My fastball was good. The cutter . . . was the best pitch today. I felt like I was locating it pretty well. The curveball was good. The slider/splitter not so much. I was just rushing.

Rafael Devers went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts.