Minnesota Twins release 2018 schedule – what’s on tap for next season
The Minnesota Twins released their 2018 schedule this week.
While the Minnesota Twins are still actively pursuing a playoff spot for 2017, but they released the schedule for 2018, so let’s take a look at what’s ahead for the hometown nine in 2018!
March/April 2018
The Twins open the season March 29th in Baltimore, playing a Thursday, Saturday, Sunday series to open the season. The Twins then have their first interleague matchup of the season, playing in beautiful PNC Park in Pittsburgh for a 2-game set on April 2nd and 4th.
The 5th of April begins a 12-game homestand where the Twins will play the Mariners, Astros, White Sox, and Indians. The White Sox series is a 4-game tilt and the Indians one is a quick 2-game series, but the special part of that is that it’s technically not in Target Field, even though it’s a home game.
The Twins and Indians will be a feature series for Major League Baseball in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Very fun to consider that Minnesota could be considered a team that MLB would want to feature, but also it should be noted that the Twins have a long-standing relationship with the island and take multiple players in the June draft each year from Puerto Rico, so the Twins are a good choice as an MLB representative for their San Juan series.
The Twins return from Puerto Rico to face the Rays in Tampa and the Yankees in New York for a 7-game, 2-team road trip before returning to Target Field. They’ll close out the month by hosting their first home interleague series of the year against the Reds before finishing April with the first of a 3-game tilt against the Blue Jays.
Next: May
May 2018
The Minnesota Twins open the month finishing up a 3-game set with the Blue Jays on the 1st and 2nd. The team then heads on the road for a four-game set with the Chicago White Sox as the open of a 10-game road trip.
May will give Twins fans a chance to see the St. Louis Cardinals in a home-and-home 2-game set, playing the Cardinals in St. Louis on May 7-8 and at Target Field on May 15-16.
The Twins go from St. Louis to Los Angeles to play the Angels before returning to Minneapolis to play the Cardinals. The first set of the border battle is May 18-20 at Target Field as the Brewers come to town for a 3-game set. The Twins finish off their homestand with 3 games against the Tigers.
Minnesota then takes off to Seattle with likely a feature night game for both the Sunday night game with Seattle on the 27th and at Kansas City on Memorial Day.
As a personal aside, if anyone is a Twins fan and looking to catch a Twins road series, I would highly suggest Kansas City Memorial Day. The city does a tremendous job on the day with a concert, fireworks, and a great festival throughout the day. Then you can also take in a great ballpark in Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, hopefully to see a Twins victory!
The 31st of the month, the Twins return home to open a homestand with the Cleveland Indians, this time actually at Target Field.
Next: June
June 2018
June opens with a divisional home stand, with the Indians for the last 3 of a 4 game series before the White Sox come to town. Mike Trout and the Angels come to town June 8-10.
The Twins rotate weeks home and away the rest of the month, with every Monday off in the month of June as they switch locales – home to road to home.
The 12th through 17th the Minnesota Twins go on the road for 3 against the Tigers and 3 against the Indians. They return home for 3 against the Red Sox and 3 against the Rangers.
The Twins travel to Chicago to finish the month, playing three against the White Sox before the start of a three-game set at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.
In looking at the June schedule, the Tigers and White Sox are both likely going to be in stages of a rebuild, which could be beneficial as June looks at this point to be the toughest month for the Twins in 2018.
Next: July
July 2018
July has the Minnesota Twins with an extended homestand and road trip built in around the All-Star game.
The Twins open on the road finishing up with the last game of a 3-game set with the Cubs. They then head to Milwaukee for the second act of the border war with the Brewers, to be played over the 4th of July in Milwaukee.
The Twins then return home and play 11 games in 11 days at home before the All Star break. The Orioles, Royals, and Rays will all come to Target Field between the 5th and 15th of the month.
The All-Star festivities will be held July 17th in Washington, D.C. Hopefully there will be a collection of Twins involved in all facets of the week – the Futures Game, the Home Run Derby, and the All-Star Game.
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Minnesota Twins hit the road for 10 games and 10 days from July 20th through July 29th, traveling to Kansas City, Toronto, and Boston.
The Twins close out the month by returning home July 30th for a series against the Cleveland Indians.
Next: August
August 2018
After opening the month with the final game of a 3-game set with the Cleveland Indians, the Minnesota Twins host the Kansas City Royals. The Twins then go on the road without an off-day to play Cleveland for a four-game set and the Detroit Tigers for three.
After ten straight days with games, the Twins go the rest of the month with an off day each Monday to keep the team fresh through the dog days of August.
The middle of the month sees a six-game homestand with the Pittsburgh Pirates in town for 2 games and the Detroit Tigers following with a 4-game series. After a 2-game set in Chicago against the White Sox, the Twins return home for 4 games against the Oakland Athletics.
August closes with a second road trip to Cleveland to face the Indians before heading to Texas for the opening of a series to close out August.
Next: September
September 2018
The Minnesota Twins open the final month of 2018 in the heart of Texas, playing a weekend set with the Rangers before opening a 3-game series against the Astros on Labor Day.
The Twins then go on their last tough stretch of the season, playing 13 straight days, starting with a six-game homestand, where the Royals come to town for a weekend series and the Yankees follow into town for a Monday through Wednesday series.
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The Twins take off after the Yankees for a pair of divisional series on the road, first a four-game series in Kansas City, followed by a three-game series in Detroit.
The Oakland Athletics will be the final non-divisional team that the Twins face in 2018 when they travel to Oakland for a three-game series.
The Twins close out the season with six games at home, hosting first the Detroit Tigers and then the Chicago White Sox, two teams that should be in a rebuilding process in 2018, so if the Twins are needing any final positioning for playoffs or a playoff push in the last week, this is an ideal last week.
Next: Twins Minor League Awards
All in all, the Minnesota Twins look to have a fairly favorable schedule. I do like the idea of getting the regular season done before October so the postseason can get underway earlier!
Now, let’s get the Twins into THIS postseason!!