What TV channel are the Minnesota Twins on tonight? (May 5, 2023)

For the first time this season, the Minnesota Twins are meeting the Cleveland Guardians and it's already shaping up to be a massive series. A hot start for the Twins has seemingly regressed to the mean, with Minnesota holding just a three game lead on the Guardians ahead of this weekend's series.

The good news is a series sweep wouldn't knock the Twins out of first place, but it obviously would be a less-than-ideal way to begin the season series against Cleveland. Minnesota has a chance to widen the gap in the AL Central, a division that is once again among the worst in all of baseball.

Minnesota hit a rough patch over the last handful of games, bungling a chance to take three games from the hapless White Sox and instead only winning one. The damage wasn't fatal, rather it was mostly annoying to see the Twins be completely unserious about adding three more divisional wins to its record.

Of course, Cleveland losing two of three to the Yankees helped negate what could have been a sea change in the Central. Instead the Twins and Guardians still meet with a lot on the line but not as much as could have been.

It'll be as close to a must-watch series as it gets, just to see if the Twins can refocus and widen its lead. The first game they play, though, might be a little difficult to find.

How to watch the Minnesota Twins vs. Cleveland Guardians tonight (May 5, 2023)

Twins fans are no strangers to finding it difficult to watch games thanks to how impossible Bally Sports North makes it to stream them. YouTube TV is constantly a letdown in terms of being blacked out and Bally Sports literally has no money after Diamond Sports Group filed for banckruptcy and refuses to pay the Twins for broadcast rights.

All of that drama aside, the Twins game on Friday is going to be an Apple TV+ exclusive. Last year Apple wisely got in on the stports streaming market and paid for the rights to broadcast a certain number of games each season as part of its Friday Night Baseball package.

This means unless you have Apple TV+, you can't watch the Twins.

• Date: Friday, May 5, 2023
• Game Time: 6:10 PM CT
• Location: Cleveland, Ohio
• Stadium: Progressive Field
• Local TV Channel: Not Available
• National TV Channel: Apple TV+
• Live Stream: Apple TV+

In the macro, there's hope that the Twins will soon be free of the BAlly Sports North grip and could have their own streaming service. If thigngs go way south, MLB has said it will step in to ensure Twins games are still broadcast and would take over the distrubution as well.

Potential silver lining to all of this is that the Twins could go the route that teams like the Cubs and Yankees went and launch their own television network and streaming service to provide Twins-centric content to fans as well as making games much easier to watch.