MILWAUKEE – The difference between this season’s lengthy winning streak and last season – when the Minnesota Twins won 12 in a row, but ultimately missed the playoffs – per manager Rocco Baldelli, is pitching. And after Saturday’s decisive 7-0 win in Milwaukee, there’s also a matter of streak length.

Twins starter Pablo Lopez was brilliant, allowing just a pair of Brewers hits in six innings of work, as Minnesota cruised to a 13th consecutive victory, gaining a game on AL Central-leading Detroit in the process. Lopez is now 4-2 after striking out six Brewers on Saturday.

Designated hitter Ryan Jeffers homered, singled twice and doubled, bringing in a pair of runs as Minnesota scored in each of the first six innings, quieting Milwaukee’s second sellout audience of the season. With clean sheet wins in Baltimore on Thursday, in Milwaukee on Friday and again in Milwaukee on Saturday, the Twins have back-to-back-to-back shutouts for just the second time in team history. And the scoreless ninth gave them 33 consecutive innings without allowing a run, which is a new club record.

Minnesota got single-inning relief efforts from Justin Topa, Jorge Alcala and Kody Funderburke in the win.

Adding another dose of early inning offense to their resume, Jeffers hit Milwaukee starter Tobias Myers’ third pitch of the game deep to left center for an early 1-0 lead. For a Brewers team that has struggled to score, giving up early offense hurt.

“For them, it’s like just a punch of the mouth. As soon as we score early, like with how well we’re pitching, it definitely puts them in a hole and then gives us utmost confidence to continue swinging the bat,” Jeffers said.

Lopez needed 23 pitches to escape the first inning without surrendering a run, and survived yet another Twins injury scare when Brewers leadoff hitter Brice Turang laced a hard shot back to the mound that hit Lopez in the upper right leg for an infield single. After a cursory examination by trainers, Lopez stayed in the game. Turang made it as far as third before Sal Frelick bounced out to second, ending the threat. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said it looked like the ball hit Lopez on the side of his rear end.

“Not the way you want to start things. Pablo’s got a big strong behind. I think he can handle taking a line drive off of that thing,” Baldelli said. “But if you’re going to catch a legitimate major-league-caliber line drive off of something, that’s where I would want Pablo taking it.”

Royce Lewis led off the second and came in to score on a RBI single by Christian Vasquez for a 2-0 Twins lead. They made it 3-0 in the third when Jeffers’ leadoff double was one of four straight hits to start the inning. Ty France brought Jeffers home with a fly ball to deep right that Frelick grabbed with what appeared to be a diving catch, only to have the ball come out of his glove when he hit the warning track.

In the next at-bat, Kody Clemens singled to right, and Brooks Lee tried to score from second base but was tagged out at the plate on a nice throw by Frelick. Clemens, who came to the Twins in a late April trade with Philadelphia, has been a surprise source of offense.

“One of the first things that Rocco says every spring training to everyone in the clubhouse is ‘hey, at some point we’re going to need a lot of you guys. Don’t think because you didn’t start the season on the 26-man roster, you’re not going to help contribute,’” Lopez said, after Clemens went 3-for-5 in the game. “Lo and behold, a couple of weeks later, we have guys in the lineup that were not part of the Opening Day, but were part of that philosophy, that mentality that we’ve been building that everyone in here competes.”

Minnesota kept up its one run per inning pace in the fourth, chasing Myers by stringing together a trio of two-out hits, with Trevor Larnach scoring on a RBI single to right by Lee. Myers allowed 11 hits and struck out four Twins in 3-⅔ innings for Milwaukee.

Myers’ replacement, Grant Anderson, saw Clemens send a ball over the right field fence to open the fifth inning, putting the Twins up 5-0. They stretched the lead to a half-dozen in the sixth when Larnach led off with a single and scored on Lee’s sacrifice fly.

Topa relieved Lopez in the seventh, pitching his way into, and out of a jam. With one out, Topa gave up a single, a walk and a hit batter to fill the bases with Brewers. But pinch hitter Isaac Collins popped out to the pitcher, and Turang hit a bouncer to first to end the threat.

The Twins tacked on a seventh run in their final at-bat when DaShawn Keirsey singled to score Clemens from third. Minnesota pounded out 18 hits in the win.

“It’s just like there were no easy innings. You know, If we’re making the opposing team work every inning like that, you’re going to win a lot of games. And I was real happy with that. I mean, in a big way,” Baldelli said. “You’re like, that’s what it looks like. You’re working hard every inning, having exceptional at bats, every inning. You know, there’s homers, there’s stringing hits together, there’s grabbing a walk, there’s making the pitcher work hard. All of it. That was good.”

Myers fell to 1-1 with the loss.

The series finale is a 1:10 p.m. CDT start on Sunday with Twins right-hander Zebby Matthews making his first start of the season versus Milwaukee right-hander Freddy Peralta.

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Minnesota adapted softball runs through Dakota County.

For the second straight season, Dakota United won both the PI and CI Division state titles, as the Hawks swept the championships again Saturday at Chanhassen High School.

PI DIVISION

The Hawks claimed their fifth-straight title via a 14-4 victory over Rochester. The program has now won 61 consecutive contests.

Dakota united is made up of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Eastview, Farmington, Hastings, Lakeville North, Lakeville South and Rosemount.

On this year’s team are Sean Wilson, Bryce Andrews, Dominik Albus, Sammy Jordheim, Nick Smock, Bennett Herrmann, Will Warder, Dylan Burns, Chloe Shibata, Thomas Klobe, Ellie Deyo, Reece Martin, Ben Schussler, Jose Collado Baez, Laura Wagner, Liv Grossbauer, Jae Bahma and Cayden Needham.

CI Division

Dakota United got vengeance for an 11-8 season-opening defeat at the hands of New Prague with a 4-2 victory in Saturday’s final, largely thanks to the long ball and some sound defense.

The co-op is made up of Apple Valley, Eagan, Eastview, FIT Academy, Hastings and Rosemount.

On the Hawks roster are Chelsea Ludvigson, Max Pucci, Remington Benedict, Joshua Jackson, Malina Finch, Nolan St. Sauver, Jake Jackson, Myles Johnson, Logan Healy, Mustafa Adnan, Henry Eisele, Anthony Dyakin, Ada Kramer, Colin Price, Oran Hill, Makai Smith and Jacob Staats.

Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville beat South Washington county 9-8 in the third-place game.

MILWAUKEE – Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was plainspoken, with no real note of optimism in his voice, when he spoke about injured outfielder Byron Buxton prior to Saturday’s game, saying that like all players dealing with a potential concussion, they were taking things slowly, deliberately.

Before batting practice had ended at American Family Field, any lingering optimism had been replaced by the harsh reality of the current Twins injury report, to which Buxton was officially added on Saturday afternoon. After colliding with infielder Carlos Correa during a win in Baltimore last week, Buxton has now been added to the seven-day injury list. Correa went on that same list a day earlier.

As is the nature of dealing with concussions – which can impact a player for a number of days to a number of years, depending on the severity – Baldelli said the team is taking its time and doing things by the book.

“You’ve just got to be very thoughtful and aware and there’s a reason why this is the type of injury that we have these types of protocols for, and many, many steps and clearances that you have to go through,” he said. “’Cause there’s not an easy way to either diagnose and treat and monitor. You have to be thoughtful.”

Concussions are not a new thing for Buxton, 31, who has dealt with injuries throughout his career. He had appeared in all but three of Minnesota’s 2025 games prior to the collision with Correa, batting .261 with 10 home runs, 27 RBI and eight stolen bases.

With the Twins winning, despite the injuries, other players have talked about the roster being filled with players willing to do whatever is needed in desperate times.

“I think for us, it’s cliché as it sounds like, it’s just next man up,” said infielder Ty France, who missed a game last week after fouling a ball off his foot. “Losing those key pieces to your team, it hurts, but every single guy in here prepares as if they’re the main guy on this team. So they fill right in.”

France noted the Friday night major league debut of 30-year-old infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, who made the five-hour drive to Milwaukee from Des Moines, where he had been playing with the St. Paul Saints, to fill in at second base after the injuries to Correa and Willi Castro.

“Fitzy makes his debut and looks like he’s been here forever, so that’s one good thing about this group,” France said. “This clubhouse, you know, we’re here for each other, we’re here to pick each other up, and we’ve done a great job of that.”

Castro taking some time

Castro initially stayed in the game to play left field, after he fouled a ball hard off his right knee in the first inning on Friday. But he left the lineup shortly thereafter, allowing Fitzgerald to play in The Show for the first time.

In the clubhouse before Saturday’s game, Castro said the pain was intense immediately.

“I felt in the moment when I got I hit. I was very painful for a couple seconds,” he said. “But I got back up and was feeling fine. Then when I went back to play defense, that’s when it started getting tight and getting swollen. When I got back to the dugout, that’s when it started feeling a little funky and that’s when they decided to take me out.”

Taking Saturday’s game off, both Castro and Baldelli said they do not expect the injury to keep him out of the lineup for too long, and he could be available on an emergency basis if the Twins were to deal with additional injuries.

“I don’t think he’s going to be out there running around if someone got hurt in the second inning. I don’t think Willi is going into the game to finish the game,” Baldelli said. “But if other things happen in the game and he’s forced into being on his feet, that might have to be an option. We’re already short a player.”

Castro is batting .235 with two home runs and six RBI in 98 at-bats this season.

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Some 43 years after Bob Mould left Macalester College just short of graduating to focus on his band Hüsker Dü, he returned to the St. Paul school Saturday to receive an honorary degree and deliver the keynote address.

“It’s an incredible honor,” the 64-year-old told the cheering crowd. “This is all very surreal so hang in here with me, it’s a little crazy.”

Mould’s speech followed several others — including a surprise appearance from Sen. Amy Klobuchar who called Mould “a trailblazing guitarist and songwriter and a major part of why the Twin Cities has become an epicenter of alternative music” — as well as a brief chant of “Free Palestine” from graduates and a performance of Hüsker Dü’s 1985 single “Makes No Sense at All” by student band She’s in Shambles.

Macalester president Dr. Suzanne M. Rivera introduced Mould and told the crowd: “Hüsker Dü showed bands of their generation and those who followed that there was no set road map to follow from punk, that the only charges were to be true to yourself and ethical in your engagement with the world. With your trademark wall of sound, your remarkable trajectory has continued for more than four decades.”

Mould began by telling students that in 1995, he gave the opening speech at the music industry convention South by Southwest and that he felt like he failed as he hadn’t prepared enough for it. “So I’m going to try again because this is what we do in life. We take chances and we try to make good on past mistakes, so this is my next shot.”

Life is like a song with verses, choruses and bridges, Mould said.

“The verse is the part of the song where the writer defines the time, the place, the characters and the story,” he said. “The chorus is the mantra, it’s the part of the song that we sing together. We share the moment, we share the feeling and we support each other. And if that chorus is good, it will stick in your head for the rest of your life.

“And then there’s the bridge. The bridge of a song is a surprise, a departure, a challenge, to twist the melody, to shift to the rhyme, it’s a turn of the story. And in a way, leaving school is like the bridge of a song, into the unknown. And that can be scary or it can be a great opportunity, and oftentimes it’s both.”

From there, Mould talked about growing up in the small New York town of Malone.

“When I was a kid, my parents ran a mom-and-pop grocery store and my sister and brother and I stocked the shelves and ran the cash register. But I grew up in a chaotic home, a violent home, and music was my escape,” Mould said as tears welled in his eyes. “I was fascinated by music. I was fascinated by melodies and words and the people who sang them and it was magic … I also knew that I was different. I realized early on that I was queer.

“As time went on, I knew I needed to leave my hometown and I needed to find a place that could nurture my heart and soul and spirit. I needed to move to a big city, a place where I might find community, a place where I could sing my chorus. Luckily, someone here at Mac thought it was worth taking a chance on me.”

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Mould spoke about receiving an underprivileged student scholarship and moving into Macalester’s Turck Hall, which he said felt like the United Nations compared to his hometown.

“There was ambition in the air and it was inspiring,” he said. “The small-town life I’d known for 17 years was instantly replaced by a multicultural, highly educated, very progressive urban environment. I quickly realized I needed to let go of whatever biases had littered my youthful thinking because in cities like St. Paul and colleges like Macalester, we learn to be tolerant, we learn to share space and resources and we learn from our differences, and those qualities are especially important in this American moment as those in charge try to marginalize other cultures and culture itself.”

Mould admitted his spent more time on his music than he did his studies, but said Macalester taught him the skills of debate and the value of critical thinking. He also spoke about his early days in Hüsker Dü and the “reciprocal generosity” of the burgeoning punk rock scene.

“When a touring punk band arrived in the Twin Cities, we were there to help them. Anything from lending equipment to making sandwiches or offering up a floor to sleep on, we were happy to help. We traded phone numbers and addresses with the hope that maybe someday, if we were lucky, we would get to tour and we might become part of this new network of outsiders,” he said.

After Mould’s junior year, he hit the road with Hüsker Dü. He returned to the college that fall, but despite guidance from his adviser, he dropped out before graduating. Hüsker Dü broke up 1988, but Mould went on to form another trio, Sugar, in the mid-’90s and has enjoyed solo success for decades.

“I didn’t make it across that particular bridge,” he said, “but Macalester had prepared me for the next bridge, which was getting my band off the ground, hustling 7-inch singles for gas money, fixing blown-out tires stranded in the middle of a blizzard, even getting held up at gunpoint by a club owner for T-shirt money. Macalester taught me how to deal with all kinds of adversity.”

Mould told the students to take pride in the small victories, but remember no victory is permanent, and to champion critical thinking and “always use your bulls— detector.”

“In closing, I’ve got to ask the graduating class of 2025, are you ready for the future? Are you ready to change the world? Are you ready to protect our democracy? Are you ready for the old guy to wrap it up? The world is yours. Thank you very much.”

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