Twins belt three homers in 7-6 loss to Rays

Ryan Jeffers, Trevor Larnach and Andrelton Simmons each mashed a home run, but the Minnesota Twins fell 7-6 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday afternoon.

Tampa Bay got the best of Minnesota right-hander Michael Pineda, who allowed five runs on nine hits in five innings on the bump. Reliever Tyler Duffey worked 2/3 of an inning and surrendered two runs on a homer by Rays infielder Willy Adames, which gave Tampa Bay a 7-5 lead.

Larnach cleared the fences for a solo shot in the eighth inning, but it wasn’t enough as the Twins fell to a 9-12 record in Grapefruit League play.

Jeffers and Simmons were the only Twins batters to notch multiple hits in the loss with two apiece.

Minnesota returns to the diamond at 5 p.m. Thursday for a matchup against the Boston Red Sox. The Twins will open the 2021 season on April 1 against Milwaukee.