Minnesota Twins fans couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season. Through the first two games of the season, Minnesota has seen a pair of quality starts from its top pitchers, a stout defensive performance from key players, and phenomenal stuff from the bullpen.
All of this, in addition to playing the lowly Royals, has combined for the team’s first 2-0 start since 2007. For the first time in franchise history the Twins opened the season with consecutive shutout wins from its pitching staff, which is the sort of stuff that has fans riding a high to begin the season.
Hopefully the good times keep rolling on Sunday when the team closes out its first series of the season.
Minnesota is going for the series sweep of Kansas City and Joe Ryan is hoping to get his season off to as good a start as Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray have. Neither Lopez nor Gray got deep into their starts, but it’s not something to read into this early in the season. It’s unlikley that Ryan goes more than five innings, but it could be a situation where Rocco Baldelli tries to push him and give the bullpen a bit of rest after starting the year pitching 9.2 innings.
For what it’s worth, the bullpen has yet to surrender a run and has only given up one hit.
Minnesota Twins starting lineup today vs. Kansas City Royals (April 2, 2023)
Pitching isn’t the only area where the Twins are making strides out of the gate. Offensively the Twins haven’t been explosive but have taken full advantage of building leads. Both games to start the season ended in 2-0 victories, but production is coming all across the lineup.
Trevor Larnach and Donovan Solano combine for the first two RBI of the season on Opening Day while Kyle Farmer and Jose Miranda batted in runs on Saturday. Byron Buxton scored in both games and has started the year with a .444 average including an Opening Day triple — and our first truck horn celebration of the year.
Her’s a complete look at the Minnesota Twins starting lineup today for the series closing game against the Royals:
Batting Order | Player | Position |
|---|---|---|
1 | Max Kepler | RF |
2 | Carlos Correa | SS |
3 | Byron Buxton | DH |
4 | Trevor Larnach | LF |
5 | Jose Miranda | 3B |
6 | Nick Gordon | 2B |
7 | Joey Gallo | 1B |
8 | Ryan Jeffers | C |
9 | Michael A. Taylor | CF |
For the third straight game Max Kepler is hitting leadoff in an almost identical lineup as the first two games of the season. It’s worth noting that Rocco never submitted the same lineup card on consecutive days last season, but did for the first two games of the year.
Other than Ryan Jeffers, the Twins are rolling essentially the same lineup for a third straight game. That probably won’t remain the case as the season continues, but if it’s not broken then there’s no reason to fix it. After an undefeated start to the year, Rocco rolling with the same lineup seems like the right move until he has a good reason to change things up.
How to watch Minnesota Twins today: Twins vs Royals live stream, start time, TV channel and radio (April 2)
Here’s how to watch the Minnesota Twins today in their series closer against the Royals:
- Date: Sunday, April 2
- Time: 1:20 p.m. CT
- TV Channel: Bally Sports North
- Live Stream: fuboTV (Try for free) | MLB.tv
- Radio: WCCO 830AM | Find your local station here
It’s another day game for the Twins, but it’s the last one they’ll be playing until Wednesday. A majority of the next stretch of games will be played in afternoon daylight, though, as outside of a pair of 5:40pm CT games in Miami the Twins will play seven of their next ten games (including today) during the day.