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2024 – The Twins bullpen let them down and they lost to the Tigers by a score of 4-3. Bailey Ober was the starter but did not factor into the decision, pitching 6 shutout innings, with three hits allowed, no walks and three strikeouts. The bullpen allowed a four-run eighth inning as Caleb Thielbar gave up three runs on three hits in his first appearance back from the IL and first appearance of 2024. The Twins sleeping bats recorded six hits and Ryan Jeffers drove in two with a bases loaded single. The Jeffers hit snapped an 0-for-11 slide for Minnesota with the bases full this season. Christian Vázquez hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot in the fourth inning off Jack Flaherty. After the game the 6-8 Twins left for Baltimore. Box Score
2023 – The Twins won their fourth game in a row and second in a row over New York when they beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium by a score of 4-3, scoring all four runs after the fifth inning. Louie Varland was the starter, allowing three runs on six hits in 6 innings pitched with eight strikeouts. He allowed three solo home runs, two coming to the first two Yankees he faced (Volpe & Judge). Emilio Pagán (W), Jorge López (H) and Jhoan Duran (S) combined to pitch 3 scoreless innings of relief
with three strikeouts. Carlos Correa put the Twins on the board with a sixth inning home run, Kyle Garlick homered in the next inning, then Correa doubled-in two runs in the top of the eighth to take the lead. The Correa home run was measured at 331 feet, the shortest for a Twin in the Statcast Era (since 2008) thanks to the Yankees short right field. Box Score
2022 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2021 – The Twins will play two games today against Boston. The first is the regularly scheduled game and the second is the make-up game for the April 12 game that was postponed by the Daunte Wright shooting by a Brooklyn Center police officer. Keep in mind that double-header games are still only 7 innings long in 2021. In game one the starters are Kenta Maeda for Minnesota and Nathan Eovaldi for Boston. The Red Sox score three times in the second on four singles, an error, a wild pitch and a fielders choice. The Twins counter with two in the third inning on a Jorge Polanco single with two runners on base. The Twins get one more hit in the fourth inning and nothing after that as the Red Sox hold on for a 3-2 win in the first of two games. The Twins are out-hit 11 to 5 and lose their fourth in a row. Maeda (1-1) takes the loss and Eovaldi (2-1) gets the win. Box Score
Game two sees Minnesota come out on the short-end of a 7-1 game as the Red Sox beat up on Twins ace Jose Berrios knocking him out of the game after just 4.1 innings after he allows 4 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. The Twins bullpen didn’t fare much better and the Twins bats are still quiet. The Twins had just five hits again and Polanco had two of them, one of which was a double. Eduardo Rodriguez upped his record to 2-0 and Jose Berrios (2-1) lost his first of the season. the loss is their fifth in a row bringing their record to 5-7. Box Score
2020 – The Twins would have been in Toronto today but instead the season thus far has been postponed due to COVID-19. That makes 18 games missed so far. Everyday that goes by makes it look less conceivable that we will see MLB this year. MLB has floated plans about realigning the divisions according to their spring training sites and playing without fans in the stands. That would mean players would be quarantined for months at a time without their families and I am already hearing players (like Clayton Kershaw) say publicly that they would not be interested in doing something like that.
2019 – The Twins sweep the two-game series at home with the Tigers when they beat up on Ron Gardenhire’s troops 6-4. The Twins were up 5-2 after three innings but the Tigers scored twice in the eighth and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth against closer Blake Parker before Rocco brought in Trevor Hildenberger who struck out the final two Tigers batters for his first save of the season. Starter Jose Berrios who struck out 7 in 6.2 innings allowed just the two runs and claimed the win to up his record to 2-1. Eddie Rosario with 3 hits and a home run and C. J. Cron with 3 run homer run led the Twins hitting attack. The 8-4 Twins now prepare to take on the visiting Toronto Blue Jays who have always been a thorn in their side. Box Score
2018 – No Game Today, game rescheduled for September 28. The Twins announced that today’s game against the White Sox has been postponed due to inclement weather. This is the second day in a row that the Twins game has been postponed due to a huge snow storm that is expected to dump around a foot of snow on the Twin Cities. It’s the first time in the history of Target Field that consecutive games have been postponed due to weather.
2015 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2014 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2013 – No game today, the scheduled game at Target Field against the Mets was snowed out and will be rescheduled for August 19.
2003 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1993 – No game today. The Twins versus White Sox game in Chicago was rained out and will be played as part of a double header on August 27th in Chicago.
1983 – No Game Today. The largest April snowstorm in Twin Cities history made travel difficult and caused the Metrodome roof to deflate due to a tear forcing the scheduled game with the California Angels to be postponed. The snowfall was measured at 13.6 inches. It snowed so hard, it sliced the Metrodomes’ roof, causing the staff to turn off the blowers and deflate the dome to avoid a larger tear. Four hundred schools closed and mail delivery to homes was stopped. Residential mail deliveries and pickups were canceled for only the third time in 20 years. The Twin Cities International Airport was shut down for 5 hours from 9 am to 2 pm. It remained the only baseball postponement in Metrodome history until the infamous 35W bridge collapse in 2007.
1978 – The Minnesota Twins finally come back to Minnesota to play their home opener at Met Stadium after starting the season with a nine game road-trip. The 4-5 Twins opened the season with five games in Seattle and then moved on to California to play the Angels in a four game series. The Twins opened their home season against the Mariners who are 2-7 with both of their victories coming at the expense of the Twins in the season opening five game series. Lola Perpich, the wife of Governor Rudy Perpich threw out the first ball. The starters today, both lefties, were Tom House for the visitors and Geoff Zahn for the home town Twins. The Twins bats were hot from the get-go as they scored two in the first and fourth in the second sending House to an early shower for Seattle. Seattle scored three in the top of the fifth inning but the Twins came back with three of their own in the bottom of the inning. Seattle fought back with one in the sixth and that just seemed to ignite the Twins and they retaliated with a five spot and after six innings of play the good-guys were up 14 to 4. Seattle added a run in the eighth inning and the final score was 14-5 for Minnesota. The Twins had 14 hits to go with those 14 runs and they batted around three times. House (0-2) took the loss for Seattle and Zahn (1-0) got the win for the Twins with a complete game effort giving up 5 runs (3 earned) on 10 hits while striking out 3. The Twins didn’t hit any home runs but they did have four doubles and a triple. Craig Kusick was the DH and he was 3 for 5 including a double and triple, scored twice and knocked in 5. Rod Carew was 3 for 4 with 2 RBI. Danny Ford and Roy Smalley chipped in 3 RBI each. The fan favorite today seemed to be right fielder and lead-off hitter Bombo Rivera who had a pretty nice day going 2 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 1 RBI. Box Score
1977 – The Twins trail Seattle 4-1 entering the ninth inning but can only score two runs and end up on the short end of a 4-3 game. Outfielder Lyman Bostock goes 2 for 4 with a run scored, a stolen base and 3 RBI but it is not enough. OF/DH Glenn Adams fractures a bone in his wrist sliding into second base at the Kingdome during the Twins 4-3 loss to the Mariners and is forced to sit out the next 5 weeks. Box Score
1975 – No game today, scheduled day off.
1972 – The first players strike in baseball history ended yesterday after 13 days. The Twins were supposed to be in Oakland playing the A’s today but this game too was canceled make it eight Twins games missed.
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. For the third day in a row there will be no Twins game today as it was snowed out again. Rescheduled for September 28.
1969 – No Game Today
1967 – After going 0-2 in Baltimore to start the season the Twins go home to play their home opener against the visiting Detroit Tigers at Met stadium on a dismal and rainy afternoon. The start of the game was delayed one hour due to rain. Dave Boswell gets the ball to open the season in Minnesota against the Tigers Earl Wilson. The Twins jump out to a 2-0 lead on RBI from Rich Rollins and Rod Carew in the first inning but the Tigers come right back with three of their own in the second inning off Boswell who struggled with his control. Boswell heads for the showers after four innings and Wilson is done when he gives up a home run to Bob Allison and a walk to lead off the sixth. The Twins end up scoring two in the sixth and add one on in the eighth and win their first game of the season 5-3. Each team committed two errors and the Tigers out-hit Minnesota 11 to 8 but came up short in the runs column. The Twins got good relief with one scoreless inning from Ron Kline and four scoreless from Jim Merritt (1-0) who earned the win. Allison and Zoilo Versalles each hit their first long balls of the season. Governor Harold LeVander threw out the first pitch. The umpires gear did not show up in time for the game so they had to wear Twins caps and jackets and striped usher pants. Box Score
1965 – No Twins game today, the game against the Detroit Tigers was rained out and rescheduled as part of a DH on June 27.
1964 – In kind of an odd Opening Day game the Minnesota Twins play the Cleveland Indians in a one game series at Cleveland Stadium before moving on to Washington. The starters were Camilo Pascual for Minnesota and Mudcat Grant for Cleveland. The Twins got on the board with a three-run home run from Earl Battey (1) making it 3-2 for the Twins in the top of the fourth but the Indians bounced back with four in the bottom of the frame knocking Pascual out of the game and taking a 6-3 lead. The Twins scored two in the fifth and two more in the sixth off the Indians bullpen and held on for the 7-6 victory. Jim Perry (1-0) picked up the win in relief and Jim Roland (1) picked up the save with four hit-less and scoreless innings of relief. The Twins were out-hit 10 to 8 and committed the games only two errors but came away with the win anyway. Box Score
1962 – The Twins lose their 1962 home opener at Met Stadium to the Los Angeles Angels 12-5 in front of only 8,363 frigid fans who brave the frigid 33 degree game time temperatures for 3 hours and 26 minutes to see baseball once again. Good thing the Twins did not open the season a day earlier as the temperature was a -2 degrees. Angels catcher Buck Rodgers goes 2 for 4 with 5 RBI. Twins reliever Georges Maranda takes the defeat in relief of starter Jim Kaat. The Twins hit three home runs but still lose the game. Box Score
1961 – Playing in only their second game the Twins beat the Orioles 3-2 at Memorial Stadium behind Camilo Pascual’s complete game 12 strikeout effort. Pascual allows 5 hits and 2 walks. Shortstop Zoilo Versalles singles in second baseman Billy Gardner who had doubled in the seventh inning and the Twins take a 3-2 lead that they won’t relinquish. Box Score
1910 – William Howard Taft becomes the first U.S. President to throw out a ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day. Attending the game in Washington, D.C., President Taft tosses the first ball to future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, who pitches the first of his 14 Opening Day Washington games, striking out nine, en route to a 3 – 0 one-hit shutout.
