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2024 – No Twins game today, scheduled day off.
2023 – The Twins lost to the Marlins at loanDepot Park by a score of 5-2. Pablo López was the starter against his former club, allowing just one run on three hits in 7 innings pitched, with one walk and eight strikeouts. The bullpen of Griffin Jax and Caleb Thielbar combined to allow four runs in 1 inning of relief as Jax was dealt the loss. The offense recorded six hits, walked twice and struck out a season-high 12 times. : The Twins completed their six-game road trip, opening the season by going 4-2, sweeping the Royals in three games last weekend, followed by a series loss in Miami. The Twins will begin the home portion of their 2023 schedule with the 63rd season in Minnesota and 14th season at Target Field when they will play the Houston Astros for three games starting on April 7th since the original April 6 Home Opener was postponed due to predicted inclement weather. Box Score
2022 – Pitchers and catchers will have the option of shaking off the traditional means of communicating between pitches during the upcoming Major League season. MLB informed clubs in a memo today that it is moving forward with regular-season use of PitchCom — a wearable device that transmits signals from catcher to pitcher — in 2022. The technology, which will be optional, was approved by the MLB Players Association after receiving generally positive feedback in experimental usage at the Single-A level last year and in big league camps during Spring Training this year.
2021 – The Twins scored early and often at Comerica Park building up a 15-1 lead and ended up beating the Detroit Tigers 15-6. Matt Shoemaker made his Twins debut, allowing one run on three hits in six innings pitched and earned the win. The offense recorded 14 hits, three from both Willians Astudillo and Nelson Cruz, who homered twice. The first Cruz long ball was a grand slam, the tenth of his career and first as a Minnesota Twin. The 15 runs scored marks the most in baseball thus far this season and the Twins’ most since July 5, 2019 vs. Texas (also 15). Randy Dobnak who earned the three inning save ran into some trouble in the ninth inning when he gave up a solo two-out home run to Victor Reyes and then allowed a single, double, walk and then a Grand Salami home run to former Twins minor leaguer Akil Baddoo who was picked up by the Tigers in the most recent Rule 5 draft. Box Score
2020 – The game between the Twins and Oakland A’s at Target Field has been postponed due to COVID-19. Ten games missed thus far.
2019 – The Twins show up at Citizens Bank Park for their first inter-league game of the season on a cool overcast 43 degree day and played in the rain. The Phillies jump on Twins starter Jake Odorizzi for five quick runs and Jake hits the showers after just two outs in the first allowing two hits, 3 walks and 5 runs. When the final score was posted the Twins had played their worst game of the season making numerous mistakes and were charged with three errors and lost 10-4 even though both teams had 11 hits. Twins lead-off hitter Max Kepler had a home run and 2 RBI but the hitting star of the game for Minnesota was Jorge Polanco who went 5 for 5 and became the 11th Twins player to hit for the cycle. The last Twins player to hit for the cycle was Michael Cuddyer ten years earlier. The loss ended a Twins 3-game winning streak. Box Score
2018 – It was a cold 38 degrees when they threw the first pitch at the Minnesota Twins 58th home opener. The Twins Cities had gotten about 9 inches of fresh snow just 2 days before. Fans wondered what kind of game the Twins would have when an eagle that was taking part in opening day ceremonies landed on the shoulder of Mariners starting pitcher James Paxton. The Marines jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on Twins starter Kyle Gibson but the Twins bounced back in spite of two errors to overtake and beat the Mariners 4-2 with all the Twins runs coming on home runs by Miguel Sano (2 run), Mitch Garver and Eddie Rosario. It was the first career big league home run for back-up catcher Mitch Garver. Zach Duke pitched just .2 innings but got credit for the win, his first as a Twin and Fernando Rodney got to shoot his arrow after his first Twins save. Box Score
2017 – Miguel Sano hit a three-run triple and Eduardo Escobar blasted a three-run homer in the seventh inning of the Twins’ 9–1 win over the Royals at Target Field. It’s the first time since the Twins arrived in Minnesota in 1961 that they had a three-run triple and three-run homer in the same inning. Hector Santiago gets the win, Justin Haley makes his major league debut in relief and became player number 376 to do so in a Twins uniform. Box Score
2016 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2014 – The Twins won 7-3 in Cleveland giving manager Ron Gardenhire his 1,000th win as a major-league manager, all for Minnesota. Gardenhire is third skipper in Senators/Twins franchise history to reach 1,000 wins, joining Bucky Harris (1,336 wins for the original Washington Senators) and Tom Kelly (1,140 wins for Minnesota). Gardy became just the second manager in club history to reach 1,000 victories, the other being Tom Kelly who went 1,140-1,244 from 1986-2001. Kelly earned his 1,000th win on May 7, 2000 with a 4-0 victory over Detroit in his 2,093rd career game as a manager, Saturday marked Gardy’s 1,950th career game. Gardy becomes the 60th manager to win 1,000 games, 24 of these managers have won 1,000 games with one team but only 10 have won 1,000 games while managing only one team and both Ron Gardenhire and Tom Kelly belong to this exclusive club. Box Score
2010 – Starting their 50th season, the Twins fell to 24-26 on Opening Day games with a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Angel Stadium of Anaheim. With new-look road uniforms minus pin-stripes for the first time since 1986 and a new-look lineup Minnesota started their 2010 season with a late night game on the west coast. Scott Baker started for Minnesota and Jered Weaver started for the Angels. The Twins were out-hit 9 to 7 and never held a lead but did manage to tie the game at 2-2 in the second inning before falling behind in the bottom of the frame never to see the lead again. Baker left after 92 pitches in 4.2 innings having allowed 4 run on 5 hits and took the loss. Weaver got the win with six innings of work. The Angels had three home runs off Twins pitchers and the Twins had just one long ball and that was by Delmon Young who 2 hits, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored and a stolen base. No other Twins player had more then one hit. OD attendance was 43,504 and the game lasted 3 hours. Box Score
2007 – No game today, scheduled day off.
2004 – It is Opening Day and 49,584 baseball fans pack into the Metrodome to watch the two-time defending AL Central champs Twins and some rookie named Joe Mauer make his major league debut. The opponents are the Cleveland Indians and CC Sabathia. The Twins go with Brad Radke as the OD starter. Sabathia gives up two hits in the first inning but keeps Minnesota off the board and then gives up no hits over the remainder of his seven innings of work and the Indians have a 4-0 lead after seven innings. But the Cleveland bullpen fails them as the Twins score four times to tie the game against three Indians relief pitchers and the game remains tied through nine innings. Cleveland almost scores in the tenth but Matt Lawton gets thrown out at home for the final out. The Twins then proceed to walk-off the Indians in the eleventh inning on a three-run home run by Shannon Stewart with two out off Chad Durbin. Juan Rincon gets the win for the Twins and Durbin gets the loss. The Indians had 17 hits to the Twins 10 but still came out on the short-end of the 7-4 game thanks to an amazing 0 for 15 with RISP. Mauer went 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 walks from the 8-hole in the line-up. Stewart was 2 for 5 with 3 RBI and his home run was the Twins only long ball of the game. Doug Mientkiewicz also had 2 hits including a double. Box Score
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1994 – The Twins opened season number 34 at the Metrodome against the California Angels with Twins players not optimistic, the fans pessimistic, and the MLB preparing for a possible strike this season. Only 41,012 fans showed up to watch the Twins get blown out 8-2. Twins starter and loser Kevin Tapani (0-1) had opening honors again and got beat up for the second year in a row when he lasted just 3.2 innings allowing 10 hits and seven runs. The Twins are young and inexperienced with little pitching and the game left Twins fans moaning, groaning and and complaining and this was only game one. Mark Langston got the win for the Angels. To be fair the Twins hit poorly, fielded poorly and pitched poorly and got what they deserved. The Twins had 9 hits but only rookie center fielder Rich Becker had more than one and the team was 0 for 9 with RISP. Dave Winfield hit home run number 300 and Pedro Munoz both homered for the Twins. Keith Garagozzo made his major league debut in this game pitching 1 inning and striking out one. Box Score
1990 – No game today. Due to the lockout by MLB, today’s game has been rescheduled as part of a double-header on July 28.
1988 – The World Series champion Minnesota Twins visited Yankee Stadium to open the 1988 season and to take on the New York Yankees. It didn’t take long for the Twins to find out that the hosts were not very nice as they shut out the Twins 8-0 behind the complete game (115 pitches) 3-hitter spun by Yankee starter Rick Rhoden (1-0). Twins starter Frank Viola (0-1) was roughed up giving up six runs in five innings on 8 hits including a couple of home runs. Twins bats were ice cold on a nice 70 degree day getting just two singles and a Greg Gagne double. The Twins highlight of the game was a triple play they turned in the eighth inning off the bat of Yankee shortstop Rafael Santana that went Gary Gaetti to Steve Lombardozzi to Kent Hrbek. A huge crowd of 55,802 enjoyed the beat-down of the Twins. Box Score
1983 – The Twins open the 1983 season at the Metrodome with 30,961 on hand to witness an 11-3 shellacking at the hands of the visiting Detroit Tigers and Jack Morris. The Tigers jumped on Twins starter Brad Havens (0-1) for 6 runs in the first inning and two more in the second inning before manager Billy Gardner had seen enough and brought Paul Boris in to pitch. The Twins used four pitchers in the 2 hour 35 minute game. The Twins only had seven hits and Kent Hrbek and Randy Bush each had two of them. Box Score
1978 – The Minnesota Twins open the new season on the road for the fifth year in a row, this time in the Seattle Mariners one-year-old Kingdome. The Kingdome is packed with a crowd of 45,235 fans and they get to see Joe DiMaggio throw out the first ball and then they watched as their favorite team started the season with a 3-2 win over Minnesota. Glenn Abbott started for the home town Mariners and Dave Goltz had the honor for Minnesota for the second year in a row. The Mariners scored one in the first and two in the second and had a 3-0 lead before Minnesota was able to score their first run on the season in the fifth inning when with two outs Willie Norwood doubled and Rob Wilfong followed with another double scoring Norwood. In the seventh with one out Dan Ford walked and that was it for Abbott. Enrique Romo entered the game and quickly gave up a single to Mike Cubbage that scored Ford but Romo and the Mariners escaped any further damage and held on for the 3-2 win. Abbott (1-0) got the win and Romo went the final 2.2 innings for the save. Goltz (0-1), a 20-game-winner last season took a complete game loss allowing three runs on 9 hits while striking out six. The Twins had just seven hits with the number nine hitter in the order 2B Rob Wilfong getting two, both doubles. Hosken Powell made his major league debut hitting lead-off and going 1 for 4 while playing right field. Box Score
1974 – The Minnesota Twins opened the 1974 season at Kansas City Royals Stadium with Bert Blyleven starting for the Twins and Paul Splittorff going for the Royals. Both pitchers went nine innings but both ended up with a ND on the day when the game went to extra innings knotted at 4-4. The Royals scored first getting 2 in the third and the Twins came back with 2 in the fourth and again in the fifth and the Royals tied it with 2 in the seventh. After a scoreless tenth inning the Twins scored 2 in the top of the 11th inning. Bill Campbell who relieved Blyleven pitched two scoreless innings for the win while Lindy McDaniel who relieved Splittorff got the loss. I guess it was a day of “2’s” as all the runs in the game were scored in groups of two. Neither team hit a home run in the game. Rod Carew, Bobby Darwin and Randy Hundley each had three hits in the game. Hundley was appearing in his first Twins game today and Sergio Ferrer made his major league debut today and played shortstop and hit lead-off. On a nice sunny 51 degree day 31,781 fans showed up to watch baseball again in 1974. Box Score
1972 – The 1972 Baseball Strike, the first strike in Major League Baseball history continues.