Boston overcomes Morneau’s homer

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) – The next time Justin Morneau steps into the batter’s box he’ll be representing Canada in the World Baseball Classic. Morneau homered in his final game with Minnesota before leaving for the WBC, but the Twins lost to the Boston Red Sox 2-1 on Saturday. “A good way to go,” Morneau said. The 2006 AL MVP led off the fourth inning with a drive that landed in a pond behind the right-field wall at Hammond Stadium. After the game he was scheduled to fly out of Fort Myers to join his Canadian teammates in Arizona. Although the first week of March is typically a time for veterans such as Morneau to ease into form, he knows things will be different in the WBC. “I know I have to be ready,” Morneau said. He can tell expectations for early March are different just by looking at his phone. “I’ve been getting a lot of text messages from people at home,” said Morneau, a native of British Columbia, where he also played youth hockey as well as baseball. That hockey background is something he’ll probably have in common with many of his teammates on Team Canada. “I’m sure we’ll talk more hockey than baseball,” Morneau said. Juan Carlos Linares went deep for Boston off starter Kyle Gibson, and the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the fifth when Jonathan Diaz scored on Ryan Sweeney’s single. Linares has yet to play in the major leagues. “Four-seamer away,” Gibson said. “He squared it up pretty good.” Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz threw 40 pitches in 11⁄3 innings.