JUPITER, FLA. — Another important day for Twins relievers today.

The team trekked across Florida in about three hours to play the Marlins, an organization that must be floating, after finally getting a new ballpark approved Monday night.

Kevin Slowey will start for the Twins, with R.A. Dickey, Jose Mijares, Brian Duensing, Sean Henn, Philip Humber and Bobby Keppel all listed as relievers.

The Twins will face righthander Chris Volstad, and it should be fun to see Hanley Ramirez play again.

Update: Watched from behind the cage as Delmon Young peppered balls through batting practice today. He’s made some subtle but important adjustments to his swing and comes in batting .341 with three home runs. I’ll have more on this for tonight’s first editions.

Update: Glen Perkins held Class A Lancaster (Astros) to one run on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings today. Perkins walked none and struck out five, throwing 72 pitches. 

TWINS

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Jason Kubel, RF
4. Delmon Young, LF
5. Brian Buscher, 1B
6. Brendan Harris, SS
7. Matt Tolbert, 3B
8. Drew Butera, C
9. Kevin Slowey, P

Starting pitcher: RH Kevin Slowey

MARLINS

1. Emilio Bonifacio, 3B
2. Cameron Maybin, CF
3. Hanley Ramirez, SS
4. Jorge Cantu, 1B
5. Dan Uggla, 2B
6. Jeremy Hermida, LF
7. Cody Ross, RF
8. Brad Davis, C
9. Chris Volstad, P

Roger Dean Stadium. First pitch: 12:05 p.m. (Central)

CLEARWATER, FLA. — Twins pitcher R.A. Dickey said sometimes his knuckleball “does some weird things.” Today was one of those days, and he couldn’t have been more pleased.

Facing the defending World Series champion Phillies (Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino are still at the WBC, but Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were here), Dickey allowed just one hit over three scoreless innings, with one walk and four strikeouts, as the Twins held on for a 2-1 victory.

Dickey now has a 3.09 ERA (four earned runs in 11 2/3 innings), with 14 strikeouts and three walks — a nice ratio, especially for a knuckleballer.

Three of Dickey’s strikeouts today — to Howard, Pedro Feliz and Kyle Kendrick — came on called third strikes.

“You see people missing it by a lot,” he said. “You see people freezing like that. That’s what I had today, so it was fun.”

Dickey is competing with Philip Humber for the Twins’ long-relief job. (It seems like LHP Brian Duensing will make the team only if LHP Jose Mijares can’t right the ship.)

Humber is out of minor-league options, which really gives him an edge. Dickey signed a minor-league deal, so the Twins could send him to Class AAA Rochester to start the season.

A key contractual note

I checked today and Dickey’s out-clause won’t let him sign with another team until June or July. This is typical for a minor-league contract, but sometimes players leave themselves an out in late-March.

Humber gave up a home run to Eric Bruntlett in the ninth inning, snapping his six-inning scoreless streak, then stranded the tying run on base for a two-inning save.

The Twins will have a tough choice between Humber and Dickey — both great guys — but I’m guessing they’ll go with Humber, which allows them to keep both in the organization.

“You never have enough pitching,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “So if they don’t make it here the first go-around, they’ll probably get used sometime during the season. We want them to throw it over and make it tough. That’s what we’re looking for, a good bullpen, and you do that with a bunch of guys throwing the ball really good.”

Dickey’s career strikeout-to-walk ratio is less than 2-to-1 (229-to-147), and it was 58-to-51 last season with the Mariners. This winter, he picked the brain of Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough, hoping to tap more secrets of the knuckleball.

This is Dickey’s 14th spring training, so he said he won’t be sweating these last 14 days. He’ll keep pitching, no matter where it is.

“I want to get better,” he said. “I want to be the best at what I do, which is why I sought out Phil and Charlie and all those other guys to really help me do that.

“I’m seeing the fruits of a lot of hard work. I’m just getting better. It feels so much more natural, where I don’t have to fight myself as much. I feel much more consistent, much more in rhythm.”

Humber still looks like a pitching prospect worth keeping. Pitching coach Rick Anderson is having a nice settling effect on him.

Eventually, the advantage of keeping Dickey in a long-relief role is how resilient he could be. The knuckleball doesn’t take much out of him. He said he’s best when he’s using about 70 percent effort and probably would be good for three more innings on Sunday.

Last year, Dickey posted a 2.00 ERA in relief, compared to 6.72 as a starter.

“I know what I can do, and I know how I could help this ballclub,” Dickey said. “That’s why I signed here in the first place, and hopefully I’ll get that opportunity.

“What they needed to see was a guy who can throw strikes with that [knuckleball], and I feel like I’ve done that. I don’t know how many strikeouts to walks I have, but it’s got to be pretty good.”

CLEARWATER, FLA. — We have just received word that former Twins third baseman Corey Koskie is retiring.

We’ve got a conference call scheduled with him and will have updates shortly.

Update: Koskie, who was in Cubs camp on a minor-league deal this spring, said the risks of suffering another concussion outweighed the rewards of playing baseball again.

Koskie’s entire life changed when he suffered a concussion on July 5, 2006, while playing for the Brewers.

Koskie, 35, played for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic and was 1-for-5 with a double in three Cactus League games this spring.

“I really have no doubt in my mind that I would have made this team,” Koskie said. “The guys over here were impressed. I’ve played in three games, and I hit a double off the center field wall, and then I pinch hit. I put together six good [plate appearances, including a walk].

“I don’t feel my skills were diminished. I don’t feel there was much of a rust factor at all.”

That didn’t make Koskie’s decision any easier.

“It actually made it harder,” he said. “But I know that was the right thing to do.”

Koskie said he received a reminder of how scary concussions can be when his son, Joshua, suffered one last weekend and spent the night in the emergency room.

Then on Wednesday, Koskie dove for a ball and started to feel “weird.” He had some water and felt better, so it might have been dehydration.

“Then I kind of decided, after every play, do I want to be looking over my shoulder, [wondering] how do I feel?” he said. “And with everything I’ve gone through the last 2 1/2 years, I know I don’t want to go back there.

“For the last 2 1/2 years, I’ve been talking to kids, talking to parents, telling all those people, ‘Is it really worth it, sending their kids back out to play?’ I made the decision that this time it wasn’t worth it. The risks outweighed the rewards of the situation.”

Update: Nick Blackburn tossed three innings in a start for Class AA New Britain today against Class AAA Rochester, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and one strikeout. Blackburn threw 45 pitches and threw first-pitch strikes to seven of nine batters.

TWINS

1. Denard Span, LF
2. Alexi Casilla, 2B
3. Michael Cuddyer, RF
4. Brian Buscher, 1B
5. Luke Hughes, 3B
6. Carlos Gomez, CF
7. Jose Morales, C
8. Brendan Harris, SS
9. R.A. Dickey, P

PHILLIES

1. Miguel Cairo, SS
2. Geoff Jenkins, RF
3. Chase Utley, 2B
4. Ryan Howard, 1B
5. John Mayberry Jr., CF
6. Matt Stairs, LF
7. Pedro Feliz, 3B
8. Chris Coste, C
9. Kyle Kendrick, P

Bright House Field. First pitch: 12:05 p.m. (Central)

BRADENTON, FLA. — Everyone keeps telling Delmon Young to pull the ball.

Well, today he did, and here were the results: A home run down the left-field line and four double plays, all to the left side of the infield.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Young said, jokingly, in the Twins’ clubhouse after their 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Pirates.

Young grounded into a 5-4-3 double play in the first inning, then lined his homer just inside the foul pole in the fourth. He said he was consciously trying to pull the ball the whole game, since the wind was blowing out to left, and he wasn’t surprised with the outcomes.

“If I go up there looking to pull, I beat it into the ground,” he said. “I roll over. Even the homer, I was looking to pull. It still got up, but it had top-spin on it.”

With an off day Thursday, Manager Ron Gardenhire let Young play the whole game.

He grounded into a 5-4-3 double play in the sixth, a 6-4-3 double play in the eighth and a 6-3 double play in the 10th.

“We yelled there that last inning, ‘Someone get on, so Delmon can hit into another one,’” Gardenhire said. “And he did. Good stuff.”

If it had been the regular season, it would have been a Twins record. Three players have grounded into three double plays in the same game, with the last being Jose Morales in 1980. (No relation to the Twins’ current catcher by that same name.)

“Three of them were bullets,” Gardenhire said of Young’s double plays. “He hit rockets on the ground, but the good thing is it’s spring training. We can smile about this a little bit. He’s putting good swings on the ball and been swinging good, so you can laugh about that stuff.”

Young is batting .382 (13-for-34) for the spring with two home runs.

BRADENTON, FLA. — The Twins are close to having a final diagnosis on Joe Mauer’s lower-back injury, and General Manager Bill Smith hinted today that it will be similar to the one they had last week, with no “red flags.”

The Twins diagnosed Mauer with inflammation of his right sacroiliac joint, which connects the spine to the pelvis, and recommended an increase in medication.

The team hasn’t had an update since Saturday, when Mauer saw a specialist in Baltimore for a second opinion. Mauer, who underwent surgery to remove a kidney obstruction Dec. 22, has been doing conditioning exercises but has not been on the field for two weeks.

“What I’ve been told is it’s not a surgical issue,” Smith said before today’s game against Pittsburgh. “It’s something we can treat, and hopefully, what we want to do is treat it once. We don’t want to rush this thing back and have further issues down the road.”

Smith said he might have a final update later today, and another person familiar with the medical discussions, said an update will be announced by Thursday.

Asked why the process is taking so long, Smith said, “We sent Joe up for a second opinion, and we didn’t want a cursory, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right, that’s what it is.’

“We asked the doctor to evaluate it from scratch. We asked for a complete evaluation from the doctor in Baltimore, and that takes time. He saw him on a Saturday, he wanted to see some additional records, and then he’s got to communicate with other doctors, with our doctors, and it’s a little bit of a slow process.”

Smith added: “There aren’t any red flags. We just asked him to give us a complete evaluation and opinion of what it is. … It’s just taken some time.

“They go in, review the symptoms, the treatments, everything he’s had. … We’ll get it as fast as we can get it. I’m just waiting for them to tell us.

“At the end, I think what we’re moving towards – the little I know, and we’re waiting for his final opinion – is his diagnosis will be the same as the other specialists that we’ve used, and then we can move forward.”

Update (corrected): Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless inning against Boston’s Class AA affiliate at the Twins’ minor-league complex in Fort Myers today. He allowed one hit and notched two strikeouts.

Kevin Slowey started against Class AAA Pawtucket allowed one run on three hits over three innings. He walked one and struck out four.

Jose Morales caught Slowey in that game and went 1-for-3 with a double.