In another week, the Spring Training scenes of families going to the ballpark together in the Fort Myers sunshine to see the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins will be over and the Major League Baseball teams will return north to play games that will count

Spring Training, once meant to help get players back into shape after they spent the winter working menial jobs to support their income, is now just as much about getting players into shape as hoping to keep as many players healthy as possible.

Both the Red Sox and Twins will leave camp with injuries to starting pitchers they acquired in the offseason. For the Red Sox, they took a blow early in Spring Training when free agent signee right-hander Lucas Giolito was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament and underwent Tommy John surgery that will knock him out of games for a year. Twins right-handed starter Anthony DeSclafani, acquired in a trade with the Mariners for Jorge Polanco, was shut down Monday with an elbow strain before even making a Spring Training start.

The game has grown more complicated as injuries to pitchers continue to befuddle teams like never before.

The game is now monitored by an assortment of new statistics. A scoreboard at Hammond Stadium during a Twins game against the Toronto Blue Jays showed exit velocity, launch angle, hit distance and pitch velocity. Yet at its core, baseball remains a simple game with nothing so pure as the cracking sound when a bat makes perfect contact with a pitched ball.

Red Sox vs. Yankees, St. Patrick’s Day

The Red Sox had many of those cracks in a game Sunday against the Yankees in Fort Myers.

Amid a crowd full of festive green for St. Patrick’s Day, the Red Sox unloaded for three home runs and a triple as part of a nine-run explosion in the first inning and won the game by a score of 12-6 as they improved to 14-9 on the exhibition season.

Sox manager Alex Cora gave the team a grade of “about a B” as they head into their final week.

“The defense has been good, defensively it’s a lot different we’re moving fast,” Cora said. “I do believe we should be a lot better defensively than last year. I think we will be a lot better.”

While the Red Sox hitters grabbed the headlines Sunday, just as important was the performance of Tanner Houck. A highly touted prospect when he came up to the big leagues, Houck has always thrown hard but after being switched between the bullpen and starting rotation and then undergoing back surgery in the offseason in 2022, he was not the same pitcher last year. Houck’s earned run average ballooned from a 3.15 to a 5.01.

On Sunday, Houck didn’t allow the Yankees a hit until the third inning and ultimately gave up four hits and a run over two and two-thirds innings while pitching largely against a group of minor leaguers. He worked fast and commanded his pitches, giving up one walk.

He struck out Yankees slugger Anthony Rizzo swinging on a cutter in the first inning and finished with four strikeouts in the game with a steady diet of 95 mph fastballs, 92 mph cutters, a 90 mph splitter and 82 mph sliders.

Cora likes what he sees from Houck.

“He’s been really good at throwing strikes. His stuff is good. He understands what he needs to do to get deep into games.”

Cora said Houck has worked on his mechanics.

“Physically, he is in a much better place.”

The victim of the Yankees hitters Sunday was prospect Will Warren, who was unable to get out of the first inning though he would later return in the fourth inning due to newish Spring Training rules which allow managers to take starting pitchers out of games and bring them back later. Warren would throw two and two-thirds innings and while he was charged with giving up six runs, only two were earned due to errors in the field.

Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story, in the midst of a resurgent spring, smacked a three-run homer into the Green Monster in left. A strong year from Story could change the fortunes of the Red Sox big time this year. Cora likes how Story has hit as well as his defense. Story is batting .324 this spring after only hitting .203 last year. He has battled a succession of injuries the last couple of years.

The team’s best player, Rafael Devers, singled in his first at-bat and then after watching two home runs before him came up later in the inning to take a golf ball swing to a low fastball out of the park in left-center over and beyond the seats above the Green Monster.

One of the most exciting young prospects for the Red Sox is Ceddanne Rafaela, who appears as if he will get every chance to prove he is a player this season. Rafaela had a hard-hit single to left, ran out a grounder for an infield single while also showing his development is still a work in progress as he struck out twice on sliders in the dirt.

Connor Wong, Boston’s sure-hitting catcher, also took part in the St. Patrick’s Day festivities with a home run out of the park over the Monster in left.

Jarren Duran has the look of a hitter ready for the season, with two hits in the game including a triple off the wall. He is batting .320 on the year.

It counts to stay all the way through games, even in blowouts — especially in Spring Training, as you never know who will be making their spring debut or pinch hit. The Yankees sent out their top prospect sensation Spencer Jones to pinch hit in the eighth and he promptly doubled. Jones is batting an outrageous .444 this spring though the 22-year-old Vanderbilt product is expected to start the season in the minors.

There was not a bad seat in the house Sunday at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers.

Melanie Collier and her daughter Maddi attended the game from Cape Coral.

“We love the games,” Melanie said. “We have been coming for a couple years.”

Twins vs. Blue Lays

The Twins have not been as explosive with their bats this spring. They lost to a roster full of Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguers in a game Thursday as they fell to 9-15 as of Tuesday.

There was a sea of blue at Hammond Stadium Thursday as the well-traveled faithful of the Toronto Blue Jays were in town to cheer on their team to a 4-1 Spring Training win over the Twins with a team of mostly minor leaguers and some potential bench players for the big league club.

The Blue Jays sent out Bowden Francis to pitch, who in limited work last season was exceptional despite not having shown such numbers in the minors.

On Thursday, Francis kept Twins hitters off balance by pitching inside with 92-mph fastballs that were not overpowering but fortified by a mix of a lot of sliders. He was wild at times, hitting Byron Buxton with a pitch.

Meanwhile Twins pitcher Bailey Ober was laboring on an overcast day allowing four hits, a walk and two earned runs over two and two-thirds innings, while striking out three. The towering right-hander, who has been exceptional for the team the last two seasons with a 3.43 ERA and 1.07 WHIP last year, was throwing 91-92 mph fastballs against the Blue Jays. For the 6-foot-9 Ober, his length allows his pitches to get to the plate quicker than the radar gun shows. This spring, he has been working on a cutter that he throws at the same speed range as his slider and changeup, between 91-93 mph.

Ober worked fast against the Blue Jays. A new rule change by MLB this year will make the pitch clock two seconds faster when runners on base from 20 seconds to 18 seconds. The clock will remain at 15 seconds with no one on. The players’ union has objected to the change. “It speeds up your internal process,” Ober said.

Thankfully for the Twins, Ober has been able to stay relatively healthy since being called up in 2021. He hasn’t had any major arm issues in an era where that is a crucially advantage.

“I have my own program,” Ober said. “Because I’m so big, I have to make sure my mechanics are sound.”

Most of his program is centered around giving him more flexibility so he doesn’t tighten up.

“He does a lot of things very well and has since the day he walked in the door,” Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli said of Ober. “He’s made adjustments, he’s toyed with some up-down kind of fastball action.”

Baldelli said Ober has increased his slider velocity and “executes well.”

Baldelli likes what he has seen from Ober’s new cutter this spring. He blamed the heat on Ober’s stuff not being as sharp against the Blue Jays.

Baldelli said he “hasn’t noticed” any effect on his pitchers from the two seconds being sped up on the clock.

“I haven’t heard anybody talking about it or complaining about it,” Baldelli said. “On some days, it might affect players. You’re compressing a lot of action into less time.”

The team’s best hitter this spring has been Edouard Julien. A lefty, Julien went the other way with a single to left field in the game and then pulled a line drive down the right field lane for another hit. He is hitting .345 on the season.

“In the games he has played in, he has most of our hits,” Baldelli said. “He’s come in very much ready to go. He’s had great at-bats.”

Julien, a native of Quebec, brings back memories with his swing of former Twins batting champion Luis Arraez with his ability to go the other way.

“It’s part of my game to go the other way,” Julien said.

“He’s got a pretty unique path and way of doing his job,” Baldelli said.

Take yourself out to the ballgame

There are only a few more days to enjoy America’s pastime watching Major Leaguers in Fort Myers with a hot dog, popcorn and Cracker Jacks. The ultimate team game is also the ultimate family sport and there is nothing quite like Spring Training for baseball fans. The last game for the Twins at Hammond Stadium will be Tuesday, March 26, when they host the Atlanta Braves at 1:05 p.m. The Red Sox will play their last game in Fort Myers Sunday, March 24, against the Braves. The scenes of Spring Training can sometimes be taken for granted. If you are a baseball fan, make sure to take advantage of the games.