Hours after Alex Cora told reporters he’s “not close” finalizing the Red Sox roster on Friday, Garrett Whitlock made a strong case for a spot in the starting rotation.

In the evening’s 8-5 victory over the Twins, Whitlock pitched 4 ⅓ scoreless innings, holding the Minnesotans to two hits, walking one, and striking out five. He threw 62 pitches, 44 for strikes.

One of the most intriguing pitching developments this spring is Whitlock’s one-seamer, a fairly uncommon pitch that harkens back to the righty’s college days. “My fastball’s gone back to what I threw in college, my one-seam,” he told NESN’s Tom Caron later in the game.

The New York Yankees, who originally selected Whitlock in the 18th round of the 2017 draft, wanted him to make some changes. “That didn’t play out very well for me,” Whitlock said. “Got here, got back to my two-seam.”

This spring, his new pitching coach, Andrew Bailey, encouraged him to bring back the one-seam.

“(I) Threw it, and he was like, ‘That was pretty good, do you feel comfortable with it?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I threw in college,” Whitlock said. “He was like, ‘Oh perfect, then let’s go with that.”

The goal is to put some more vertical drop on the pitch, but Whitlock is managing his expectations. “Just get a little bit more sink, like obviously, I’m not gonna have a Tanner Houck fastball, but you know,” he joked, referring to his best friend on the team.

Friday night also saw Kenley Jansen making his spring training debut in the sixth inning. The rust was evident, as Alex Kirilloff sent Jansen’s second pitch soaring over the Green Monster to finally get Minnesota on the board. After getting a flyout and strikeout, Jansen gave up a second solo shot to Christian Vázquez. When the Sox closer followed that with a single to Jose Miranda, his manager came out to get him.

Fortunately for Jansen and Felix Cepeda, who took over for the veteran closer and allowed the Twins to tie things up before getting out of the inning, Rafael Devers and Jarren Duran had enormous nights at the plate.

After entering the night 3-for-17 (.176) with zero extra-base hits or runs batted in through his first seven preseason games, Duran went 3-for-4 in the contest. Batting in the leadoff spot, which Cora officially assigned to him early in the preseason, Duran opened the bottom of the first with a double. His one-out single in the following frame plated Ceddanne Rafaela and Connor Wong, giving Boston a 2-0 lead. He also advanced to second on a fielding error by Kirilloff, then down to third on a wild pitch, and finally scored on Devers’ single to center.

In the fifth, Devers hit his third home run of the spring in the fifth to extend the lead to 4-0. But it was Duran’s first round-tripper that took the lead back for Boston with a two-run homer in the seventh.

“It always feels good,” Duran told Caron. “I’ve been putting together some good at-bats… it’s always nice to have some results, gives you a little confidence-booster.”

For good measure, Jamie Westbrook contributed a towering Green Monster home run of his own in the bottom of the eighth, leading Jason Varitek to proclaim, “She gone!” to Caron.

For the Twins, any hope of victory was gone, too.