An announced crowd of 35,595 fans huddled into Target Field on Thursday afternoon to greet the new season. They were treated to a game that looked much like last year’s early-season efforts.
The Twins’ offense, which broke through with a late spark on Wednesday, was unable to capitalize on its many opportunities on Thursday, striking out 15 times in a 4-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Minnesota’s home opener.
That started in the first inning when the red-hot Alex Kirilloff hit a one-out triple, his second triple in as many days — he had two in his career before Wednesday — and was stranded on third. An inning later, with the bases loaded and two outs, Edouard Julien took a pitch at the bottom of the strike zone for called strike three.
Julien would later provide one of the Twins’ only runs of the day, hitting an opposite-field solo home run out to left that just kept carrying.
But the Twins’ offense would never be able to make Cleveland pay, finishing the day 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine on base. The other run the Twins scored came in the seventh inning when Willi Castro raced home on a wild pitch.
The offensive effort meant the Twins were unable to catch up once starter Pablo López ran into trouble in the fourth inning.
López began his day with three perfect innings before the Guardians ambushed him with four singles in the fourth inning. Add in a sacrifice fly and the three-run inning was enough to put the Twins in a hole for good.
The Guardians tacked on one more run in the sixth inning, scoring on a rare Carlos Correa error but then running into an out at the plate to end the inning.
