FORT MYERS, Fla. — Carlos Quentin homered in his bid to earn a roster spot and Joe Mauer also connected Friday as the Minnesota Twins beat the split-squad Boston Red Sox 8-6.

Quentin, who retired last May, is trying to restart his career. He hit a two-run homer.

Tyler Duffey, competing for a spot in the Twins rotation, faced six batters in the first inning, giving up a run on three hits. Over the next three innings, he allowed just two hits.

Rick Porcello, Boston’s No. 3 starter, went four innings and gave up three runs on six hits and a walk. He faced eight batters in a three-run second inning and threw 77 pitches in the game, 47 for strikes.

“There were a higher number of pitches in the bottom of the strike zone,” Red Sox Manager John Farrell said. “They fought off a couple of pitches that might have been elevated.”

Mookie Betts had two hits for the Red Sox, including his third home run of the spring. Andrew Benintendi, Boston’s first-round pick in the 2015 draft, had two hits in his first spring training game.

“He’s got a good-looking swing,” Farrell said of Benintendi. “Even if he doesn’t get a couple of basehits, it’s still a compact swing.”

Boston’s other squad managed just one run on four hits against seven Tampa Bay relievers as the Rays topped the Red Sox 5-1 at Port Charolotte.

Boston’s run came in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Brennan Boesch that scored Blake Swihart.

• Boesch fractured his right wrist in the third inning while diving for a shallow pop fly and is out indefinitely.

WHITE SOX: The uproar over Adam LaRoche’s abrupt retirement turned ugly Friday, with ace Chris Sale accusing a White Sox executive vice president of lying to the team about the reasons LaRoche’s son needed to spend less time in the clubhouse.

LaRoche for the first time spoke publicly Friday about what happened.

“Prior to signing with the White Sox, my first question to the club concerned my son’s ability to be a part of the team,” he wrote in a statement posted to Twitter. “After some due diligence on the club’s part, we reached an agreement. The 2015 season presented no problems. …

“With all of this in mind, we move toward the current situation which arose after White Sox VP Ken Williams recently advised me to significantly scale back the time that my son spent in the clubhouse. Later, I was told not to bring him to the ballpark at all.”

The 36-year-old LaRoche said he instead chose to retire and walk away from $13 million.