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2024 – SATURDAY IS ALL TWINS: The swept the Tigers in the doubleheader at Comerica Park by scores of 11-5 and 4-1. It marked the first time the Twins have swept a doubleheader since taking both games against the Tigers at Target Field on September 4, 2020. It is their first doubleheader sweep on the road since September 14, 2019 at Cleveland. GAME 1: The game marked Minnesota’s first extra-inning game of the season, their most runs scored in 2024, and their largest margin of victory this season. Joe Ryan was the starter but did not factor into the decision, allowing three runs (1 earned) on six hits in 6 innings pitched, including a career-high 12 strikeouts. Minnesota scored seven runs in the top of the 12th inning, highlighted by a Matt Wallner three-run homer, his first long-ball of the season. Box Score
Game 2: GAME 2: Simeon Woods Richardson who was called up to be the “27th man” earned his first career win, allowing one run on two hits in 6 innings pitched, with one walk and five strikeouts, including retiring his final 14 batters. Cole Sands earned his second career save with 2.1 perfect innings of relief. Edouard Julien (4) and Willi Castro (1) both hit home runs. The bullpen on the day, did not allow an earned run in 9 innings, including four hits allowed, two walks and 10 strikeouts. Box Score
2023 – Per Phil Miller in the Star Tribune on April 14 – The Twins unleashed one of the most implausible, unthinkable innings in their history on Thursday, sending 13 batters to the plate, knocking four baseballs off the outfield walls and three more over them, and scoring nine runs, the biggest, loudest inning they’ve had in New York in their 62 seasons. They added a couple more runs just because they could, and walked away with an 11-2 victory, their biggest here in 32 years. I told Cole Sands before the game, ‘Hey, get ready to pitch today because we’re going to score 10 runs.’ I didn’t expect them all to come in the first inning,” joked Carlos Correa, who followed Michael A. Taylor’s and Edouard Julien’s back-to-back home runs with a homer of his own. “I mean, that was crazy. We had a blast doing that. It was a lot of fun.” It marked the third time in Twins history (since 1961) to homer three consecutive times against the Yankees, their most against any opponent, nine runs also marked the Twins’ most runs scored in an inning against the Yankees. Edouard Julien recorded his first major league hit with a lead off single in the first inning last night. Twins sent 13 men to the plate and he homered in his second plate appearance, becoming eighth different player in baseball history in the expansion era (since 1961) whose first two MLB hits came in the same inning, fourth to include a homer (Elias) The Twins also ended Aaron Judge’s 45 game on base streak so it was a good day all around. Attendance was 39,024. Box Score
2022 – The Twins lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Target Field by a score of 7-0, suffering the two-game sweep. Chris Paddack (0-1) made his Twins debut and was issued the loss, allowing three runs on six hits in 4 innings pitched. The Twins were held without a base-runner until a Gary Sánchez eighth-inning single to right field, their only base hit of the afternoon. Additionally, they struck out 14 times and walked just once. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw was lifted after seven innings and 13 strikeouts on 80 pitches had a perfect game going. This caused a bit of consternation in the national press. Twins reliever Dereck Rodriguez who made his Twins debut gave up three consecutive home runs to Cody Bellinger, Gavin Lux and Austin Barnes in the eighth inning and a day later found himself designated for assignment. The Twins began their 62nd season in Minnesota with a 2-4 home-stand, going 2-2 against the Mariners and 0-2 against the Dodgers. Now they will begin their
first road trip of 2022 with four against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, followed by three against the Royals. Box Score
2021 – The Boston Red Sox are in town and send former Twin Martin Perez to the mound against the Twins starter J.A. Happ. The Twins jump out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first on a Byron Buxton double, Kyle Garlick is hit by a pitch and Mitch Garver walks to load the bases for Jorge Polanco. Polanco hits a sac fly to score the Twins first run. Miguel Sano also draws a walk to reload the bases for Luis Arraez who hits into a fielders choice at second base and Garlick scores the second run. The game remains 2-0 Twins until the fifth when Happ runs into trouble after retiring the first two batters and then gives up a home run, a single and a double tying the score at 2-2. Rocco Baldelli says that enough of that and brings in Cody Stashak to get out of the inning. It turns into a bullpen game and the Red Sox bullpen keeps the Twins off the board while the Twins bullpen allows a run in the eighth and another in the ninth and the Twins lose 4-2, their third loss in a row. The Red Sox commit two errors but Twins bats go 0 for 8 with RISP. Buxton is 2 for 5 with a double and is the only Twin with more than one hit. Randy Dobnak (0-2) pitches three innings of relief allowing one run on two hits and takes the loss. Box Score
2020 – The Twins would have moved on to Toronto today but instead the season thus far has been postponed due to COVID-19. That makes 17 games missed so far.
2019 – The Twins upped their record to 7-4 when they beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on a brisk 37 degree day in Minneapolis with an announced crowd of 16,484 but probably about half that number were really in attendance in the lower level bowl as the Twins closed the upper deck for the game. Michael Pineda went 6 strong innings allowing 3 runs while striking out 5 and got his second win of the season. Blake Parker got the save. Eddie Rosario had 2 of the Twins 5 hits along with 2 RBI. The Tigers out-hit the Twins 10-5 but going 2 for 15 with RISP didn’t help their cause. Box Score
Brian Blanco – Getty Images)
Off the field Twins President Dave St. Peter attended the Payette, Idaho USPS dedication of the Post Office to former Twins great Harmon Killebrew who was born and raised there.
2018 – No Game Today on Friday the 13th, game is rescheduled for June 5. The Twins’ scheduled game against the Chicago White Sox at Target Field was postponed due to inclement weather, the club announced roughly four hours prior to the scheduled first pitch of 7:10 p.m. CDST. The date of the makeup game will be announced at a later date, as the Twins could see Saturday and Sunday’s games also postponed, with a snowstorm in the forecast for the Twin Cities this weekend.
2015 – The Twins 55th home opener turns out to be a 12-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Target Field bring their record for the season to 1-6. The sold out crowd of 40,123 witnesses the worst loss in Twins home opener history. This sellout was the Twins first since August 3, 2013 and after a loss like this who knows if and when Twins fans will come back. Twins starter Trevor May, one of six pitchers used by manager Paul Molitor was saddled with the loss. Box Score
jerry.holt@startribune.com
2010 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2004 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1991 – It was only the fifth game of the season and the Twins would lose to the California Angels by a score of 15-9 allowing 21 hits at the Metrodome in front of a big crown 32,782. The 15 runs would be the most runs the Twins would allow all season. The Twins trailed 8-2 midway in the game but scored 5 in the bottom of the fifth to make it 8-7 but that would be a close as they would get. 40-year old Angels outfielder and Minnesota native Dave Winfield had one of his career best games with three home runs in a 5 for 6 day with 6 RBI and 4 runs scored. Angels pitchers tied a big league record with six wild pitches but still came away winners. Twins starter Mark Guthrie took the loss lasting just 2.1 innings and allowing 6 runs on 7 hits. Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek each hit their first home runs of the new season. Rookie Chuck Knoblauch went 3 for 3 with two walks. Box Score
1981 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1976 – The Day dawned cloudy but before game time for the Twins 1976 Home Opener the sun came out and all of a sudden everyone wanted to go to the ballgame. Advance ticket sale for the Home Opener was 4,778 and back then the Twins expected a crowd of about three time the advance sale. But not today, ticket lines were so busy when the games was scheduled to start that the game start had to be delayed. When the counting was done 20,732 fans were in the stands to watch their favorite team take on the Chicago White Sox. Bert Blyleven was the Twins starter and the Chicago White Sox went with Rich Gossage who was strictly a relief pitcher last season and led the American League with 26 saves. The White Sox drew first blood in the second inning and took a 1-0 lead and the Twins got one back in the bottom of the fourth on a Dave McKay single that scored Rod Carew who had walked earlier. The game remain knotted at 1-1 until the White Sox scored three times in the eighth inning before Vic Albury was called on to get the last out of the inning but by then the Chicago had a 4-1 lead. Gossage was on his game and wasn’t about to relinquish the lead and went on to pitch the second complete game of his career in his first start since 1974 when he started three games. Gossage allowed just the one run on 3 hits, 2 walks and 9 strikeouts and got his first win of the season. Blyleven (0-1) took his first loss of the year while allowing 4 runs but just 1 earned on 7 hits, 3 walks and 5 KO’s. Bob Randall made his major league debut when he entered the game in the ninth inning but he did not get an at bat. The game was over in 2 hours and 25 minutes. Box Score
1973 – After opening the 1973 season with games on the west coast with Oakland and California the 3-2 Twins finally get to play their Home Opener at Met Stadium against you guessed it, the Oakland A’s. Jim Kaat gets home opening honors for the Twins and the A’s go with Blue Moon Odom. Unfortunately for Oakland, Odom doesn’t even make it out of the first inning getting just two outs before departing having allowed 3 hits, 3 walks and 4 runs. The Twins pour it on getting 3 more in the second inning and one in the third and the home town team had a 8-0 lead after three innings as 13,040 Twins fans cheered on their team. Kaat (2-0) got the win with six innings of work and Ray Corbin notched a scoreless 3-inning save, his second of the year. Hisle (3) again had a big day with a home run, 3 runs scored and an RBI. Bobby Darwin hit his first home run of the season. Box Score
1972 – ON STRIKE – For the first time in history, the major leagues failed to open because of a player strike, which started on April 1. The Twins were scheduled to play the Chicago White Sox at Met Stadium today but that obviously that did not happen. Seven Twins games missed due to the strike so far.
1972 – The first players strike in baseball history ended after 13 days. According to Time magazine:
Major League Baseball’s first general strike began on April Fools’ Day in 1972. It lasted just under two weeks, encompassing 86 games that were never rescheduled. Ultimately, team owners increased the players’ pension fund by $500,000, and players gained the right to salary arbitration. The strike was no joke: TIME reported that it “cost the owners at least $5,000,000, mostly in lost ticket sales and broadcasting fees; the players dropped about $1,000,000 in salaries.”
1970 – No game today. Game is snowed out and rescheduled for May 14.
1969 – The California Angels jump on Twins starter Dick Woodson for three quick runs in the first inning on three hits and two walks and that is the end of the line for Woodson. Tommy Hall pitches five scoreless innings to keep the Twins in the ball game. The Twins score two in the seventh and two more in the eighth and hold on to win their first game of 1969 with a 5-4 come from behind win. The big bats belonged to Tony O who was 3 for 5 and Harmon Killebrew had 2 hits including a home run. Ron Perranoski who wanted to be traded before the season began earned his first win of the season. This is the first win in Billy Martin’s managing career. Box Score
1968 – The Twins move on to New York to face the Yankees. Jim Perry starts for Minnesota and Bill Monbouquette takes the hill for the Bombers. Only 15,611 fans show up on a beautiful 81 degree day to watch the undefeated (2-0) Twins face the Bronx Bombers and they witnessed a 6-0 Twins shutout win as they upped their record to 3-0. Perry (1-0) pitched a complete game allowing just 4 hits while striking out 7. Perry not only pitched a shutout, he hit the games only home run as well. The Twins had 11 hits with Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Ted Uhlaender and Jackie Hernandez each getting two hits. Box Score
Radio (Yankees) broadcast of the game, about 2 hours 36 minutes
1965 – The Twins announced during the game yesterday that “Due to the disaster situation and extreme flood and transportation condition, that the game versus the New York Yankees scheduled for today has been postponed until July 10.”
1962 – A 6+ inch snowfall postpones the Twins scheduled home opener against the Los Angeles Angels. A crowd of 25,000 was expected but when they played the game the next day only 8,363 fans show up due to continuing frigid temps.
clipping_500367 April 13, 1962
1961 – Game against the New York Yankees rained out in New York.
1957 – Milwaukee Braves and Minneapolis Millers put on a cold-weather exhibition in Minneapolis by Joel Rippel