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2024 – The Twins snapped a two-game losing streak by beating the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field by a score of 7-3, including a five-run seventh inning. Chris Paddack started his first game of the season but did not factor into the decision, allowing two runs on six hits in 4 innings pitched. The offense set season highs in runs, hits (11), walks (7) and extra-base hits (5). Alex Kirilloff set a career high by reaching five times, going 4-for-4 with a walk. Ryan Jeffers (1) recorded the club’s second home run of the season with a three-run go-ahead 376-foot shot. Daniel Duarte (1-0) picked up his first Twins win. With the win today, manager Rocco Baldelli has tied Gene Mauch for fourth place in Twins manager victories with 378. he will have to go awhile before passing Sam Mele who is third on the list with 522. The Twins completed their first roadtrip of the season with a record of 3-2, going 2-1 in Kansas City and 1-1 in Milwaukee. After a day off the Twins will play their Home Opener against the visiting Cleveland Guardians. Box Score
2023 – The unbeaten Minnesota Twins move on to loanDepot Park in Miami to take on the Marlins. Tyler Mahle starts for Minnesota and Johnny Cueto starts for Miami. The Twins put their bats to work right away and score in the first four innings and take an 8-0 lead before the Marlins score their lone run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI single off the bat of former Twins fan favorite Luis Arraez. Final score was Twins 11 and Marlins 1. Mahle (1-0) was winner, allowing one run on five hits in 5 innings pitched, with one walk and seven strikeouts. The offense recorded 10 hits, four being home runs from Max Kepler (1), Joey Gallo (3), Trevor Larnach (1) and Ryan Jeffers (1). Kepler’s led off the game, marking the 14th leadoff homer of his career, tying Chuck Knoblauch for third on the Twins all-time list (Brian Dozier – 28 & Jacque Jones – 20). Jorge Alcala and Cole Sands each pitched two scoreless innings of relief. The Twins are one of two teams in baseball yet to lose, joining the Tampa Bay Rays (4-0). Box Score
2021 – The Twins beat the Brewers at American Family Field by a score of 2-0 winning their first game of the season in one heck of a pitchers duel in front of 11,383 fans. José Berríos (1-0) was the starter and winner, pitching six shutout innings with no hits allowed, no walks and 12 strikeouts. Berríos’ 12 strikeouts matched Camilo Pascual (April 14, 1961) for most K’s by a Twins starting pitcher in his season debut. Byron Buxton highlighted the offense, hitting his second home run of the season, breaking up Corbin Burnes’ perfect game in the seventh inning. Taylor Rogers added three strikeouts and Tyler Duffey added two, giving the staff a total of 17, two short of the Twins record set on August 19, 2007 (Johan Santana – 17, Joe Nathan – 2). The game marked the 18th one-hitter in Twins history (since 1961) and first since Ervin Santana one hit the White Sox by himself on April 15, 2017. Oddly both one-hitters were broken up on Omar Narváez singles to right field. Berríos and Burnes became the first pair of opposing starters with 10+ strikeouts and one-or-fewer hits allowed in the same game in the modern era. Berríos became the first pitcher in franchise history with at least 12 strikeouts and no hits allowed through six innings. Berrios is the third Twins pitcher pulled after at least six no-hit innings, joining Kyle Gibson, who departed after six no-hit innings in Baltimore on March 31, 2018, and Kevin Slowey, who lasted seven no-hit innings against Oakland at Target Field on August 15, 2010. Today’s game was the first time in baseball that dueling no-hitters went through six innings since August 2, 2014 when the Giants Jake Peavy vs Mets Jacob deGrom. Box Score
2020 – A scheduled day off in a season that has thus fan been postponed due to COVID-19. 8 games missed thus far.
2019 – The Twins battle back at Kauffman Stadium from a 6-3 deficit after five innings, scoring one in the sixth, two in the eight and one in the ninth for a nice 7-6 win. Starter Kyle Gibson lasted just 4.2 innings and gave up six runs but got off the hook with the Twins come-back. Trevor May got the win and Blake Parker took the one-out save. Willians Astudillo was 3 for 5 with a double and RBI and Eddie Rosario was 2 for 4 with a double and RBI. Box Score
2018 – No Game Today
2015 – The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Minnesota Twins right-handed pitcher Ervin Santana has received an 80-game suspension without pay after testing positive for Stanozolol, a performance-enhancing substance, in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The suspension of Santana will be effective for the first 80 games of the 2015 regular season. Santana, who was to earn $55 million over the next four seasons, was suspended for 80 games for violating Major League Baseball’s drug prevention and treatment program. The earliest he can return to action is July 4, when the Twins visit the Kansas City Royals. Scheduled to earn $13.5 million this year as part of the richest free-agent deal in club history, Santana will not be paid during the suspension, costing him more than $6.6 million.
2001 – The Twins found themselves at Comerica Park in Detroit to play the Tigers in the Season Opener for both clubs. Brad Rake was the Twins starter and Jeff Weaver was the Tiger starter. The Twins scored single runs in the third, fourth and eighth innings and the Tigers put one on the board in the fourth. Twins manager Tom Kelly called for his closer LaTroy Hawkins to pitch the ninth but Hawkins walked the first batter and then threw a WP to Billy McMillon and the Tigers had a runner on second, but not for long because McMillon singled him home. Hawkins retired the next batter but when he walked Juan Encarnacion, TK brought in Bob Wells with two on and one out to face Shane Halter who Wells quickly induced to hit into a double-play ending the game with the Twins winning 3-2. Weaver pitched a CG but lost the game allowing 3 runs on 6 hits. Radke got the win with 8 innings of work on just 84 pitches and one run on six hits. David Ortiz had 2 hits including a HR and the other two RBI came from Jacques Jones and Denny Hocking. The game had a nice OD crowd of 40,104 on a raw and windy 45 degree day but the game was a quick one, just 2 hours and 32 minutes. Box Score
2000 – The Twins opened the 2000 season at the Metrodome against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the game was actually over after just one pitch when Tampa lead-off hitter Gerald Williams hit Brad Radke’s first pitch of the new season over the left field fence for a home run. The Devil Rays ended up beating the Twins 7-0 in from of a reported crowd of 43,830 even though some said that there were about 35,000 butts in the seats. The Twins were never really in the game and were outhit 14 to 8. Radke took the loss allowing 6 runs on 9 hits in his 5 innings of work. Steve Trachsel who started and went 7 innings for Tampa got the win pitching shutout baseball for 7 innings. Cristian Guzman and Jacques Jones each had two hits for Minnesota. “Peanuts” character Charlie Brown threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Box Score
TC Bear is introduced as the Twins new mascot. The TC stands for Twin Cities. A case could be made that TC Bear “bears” some resemblance to the Hamm’s Beer Bear, a mascot used in advertisements for Hamm’s Brewery, an early sponsor for the Twins dating back to the early 1960’s.
1998 – The Kansas City Royals are in town for Minnesota’s Home Opener and the Twins Brad Radke will face off against the Royals Chris Haney. Things look good as the Twins jump out to a 4-0 lead after three innings but then the Royals bats wake up and they score the next six runs and when the final score is posted on the Metrodome scoreboard it says that the Royals have 9 runs and the Twins 5. The Twins are out hit 15 to 10, commit two errors and pitch poorly and all that adds up to an unhappy day for the 43,848 fans that show up to watch baseball again in 1998. Radke (0-1) takes the defeat when he gives up 5 runs, 3 earned on 6 hits in five innings. David Ortiz, Pat Mears and Alex Ochoa had two hits each and one of Ortiz’s hits was a home run (1). Box Score
Organist Ronnie Newman’s schedule cut. Star_Tribune_Wed__Apr_1__1998_
1990 – No game today. The Twins were originally scheduled to play their season opener against the World Champion Oakland A’s at the Metrodome today but the “lockout” kept that from happening. Instead, the Twins opened on the road in Oakland on April 9. The six missed games against the A’s and Mariners will be made up. Today’s game will be made up on May 14.
1984 – The Twins lose their third straight Dome opener when the lose to the visiting Detroit Tigers and Jack Morris again, this time by a 8-1 score before 34,381 Opening Night customers. Morris now has taken the last ten decisions against Minnesota and has a 12-2 record against them in just over six seasons. And you thought that Calvin owned the Twins! The Twins have lost all three of their Metrodome home openers but this is the first time they have held their opponents to under 11 runs. Morris (1-0) notched his first win of the season with seven innings of work allowing one run on five hits while striking out eight. Al Williams (0-1) started for the Twins and allowed six runs over 6.1 on eight hits and took the loss. The game was actually closer then you may think as the Twins trailed 2-1 after five innings but the Tigers pushed three runs across in the sixth and again in the seventh to put the game out of reach. The Twins could only muster 5 hits and Mickey Hatcher had two of them. Lenny Faedo had the lone Twins RBI. Box Score
1982 – The Twins beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 in an exhibition game, the first event ever held in the new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Pete Rose of the Phillies gets the first hit in the new stadium and Kent Hrbek hits the first two home runs in the Metrodome. Attendance was 25,292.
April 3, 1982: Twins shut out Phillies in exhibition to open the Metrodome by Stew Thornley
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1972 – The 1972 Baseball Strike, the first strike in Major League Baseball history continues.