Hello, fellow humans! My name is William Malone IV. Son of William Malone III. And I come with great news! The Minnesota Twins play a spring training baseball game against the Boston Red Sox today.

How awesome is baseball? Man, it's the coolest. Right? Even the stressful times are cool.

Some of these stressful times come in tightly contested one run games. Under the managerial tenure of Rocco Baldelli, the Twins are 118-111 in these one run games, including a 22-20 record last season. While it hurts to lose these games, it's so thrilling to pull them out. Here is one random one run memory for each season under Baldelli.

2019
The 2019 Minnesota Twins were 23-12 (.657) in one run games. This was the 12th most one run wins in the Majors, but the second best winning percentage in one run games. A great offense led by Nelson Cruz and the Bomba Squad helped Minnesota pull away late in many games, helping them often avoid one run finishes.

Perhaps their most notable one run game was a 1-0 win against the Houston Astros on April 29th. As expected, Astros ace Justin Verlander was unbelievable. Six innings, two hits, seven strikeouts. But one of those two hits was a solo shot that gave Minnesota their only run. There are lots of people who could've hit that homer. Afterall, this was the famous "Bomba Squad." Nelson Cruz? No. Miguel Sano? No. Eddie Rosario? No. It was Ehire Adrianza! The hero of the day!

Going against Verlander was Jake Odorizzi. He certainly answered the bell. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts and only five base runners allowed. Nobody reached second base against him until the sixth inning, but Odorizzi struck out Carlos Correa and Yuli Gurriel to stand the runners. Taylor Rogers had to escape a bit of a jam in the eighth inning, and then Blake Parker faced the minimum in the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single to Correa, but immediately cleaned it up by getting Gurriel to ground into a double play on the next pitch. Josh Reddick grounded out to end the game.

2020
The 2020 Minnesota Twins went 9-5 (.643) in one run games. This was the eighth most one run wins in the Majors, but the fourth best winning percentage in one run games. Once again, a great offense helped Minnesota pull away late in many games.

One of their most important victories of the season was a 3-2 comeback win over the then-first place Chicago White Sox on September 1st. The Twins had lost six games in a row. In a 60-game season, that's the equivalent of 16.2 game skid for a 162 game sample. Trailing 2-0 after the first inning, they seemed destined to lose a seventh consecutive game. But Michael Pineda shook off a rough first inning, and got the Twins through six. A bullpen trio of Caleb Thielbar, Sergio Romo and Matt Wisler allowed just one base runner over three innings.

The Twins offense chipped away with runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh. Marwin Gonzalez got the fifth inning RBI, driving in Jorge Polanco with an RBI groundout. Jake Cave led off the sixth inning with a triple, and Luis Arraez drove him home with an RBI single. They pulled ahead in the seventh when Byron Buxton drove in Nelson Cruz with an RBI single.

This comeback gave Thielbar his first big league win since 2014. Wisler got his first save since 2016.

2021
The 2021 Minnesota Twins were 25-19 (.568) in one run games. This was the seventh most one run wins in the Majors, and the eighth best winning percentage in one run games. An impressive aspect of this record is that Minnesota went 1-6 in one run games during the month of April, having to go 24-13 in such games from May 1st on.

That lone one run win in April was quite the thriller. It came on April 15th against the Boston Red Sox. Minnesota has been swept in a doubleheader the day before, and the team was desperate for a victory. Luis Arraez drove in two runs early with a multi-run single against Garrett Richards in the second inning. Miguel Sano added a solo homer in the sixth to make it 3-0. On top of that, Michael Pineda tossed seven shutout innings. It seemed like the Twins were well on their way to a much needed win.

However, things didn't come so easily. The eighth inning didn't go so well. Hansel Robles loaded the bases without giving up a hit, then Taylor Rogers allowed a bases clearing double while facing Alex Verdugo. Just like that, the game was tied. The Twins went down quietly in the bottom half of the eighth, Alex Colome pitched a dominant ninth, and that gave Minnesota a chance at a walk-off.

Max Kepler was the hero that day! This shouldn't come as a surprise. His 11 career walk-off plate appearances are tied for a franchise record. This game featured one of those 11. Luis Arraez led off the inning with a single, and Jorge Polanco was hit by a pitch. With the winning run now in scoring position, Kepler came up and delivered the game winning single.

2022
The 2022 Minnesota Twins went 20-28 (.417) in one run games. This was the 25th best winning percentage in one run games, or sixth worst if you want to be a glass half empty person. Stinks to lose these games, but it was only a matter of time. After going 57-36 during the first three years under Rocco Baldelli, they were a little due to start losing a few more coin toss games.

Minnesota did have a memorable one run win in their House of Horrors; Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. While their struggling and injury riddled team had been losing ground in a tight playoff race over the last few weeks, they temporarily delayed this slide with a thrilling win on September 8th. Sonny Gray tossed six innings of two run ball against his former club, and only one of the runs was earned. Gary Sanchez and Nick Gordon proved RBI hits in the fifth inning against Nestor Cortes, and it all came down to the bullpens.

Carlos Correa took Greg Weissert deep in the eighth inning, and there was a runner on base! Minnesota had a two run lead. Disappointing deadline accusation Jorge Lopez allowed a run in the eighth, and still couldn't finish it. He turned it over to Caleb Thielbar with two outs and runners at the corners. His opponent was the mighty Giancarlo Stanton. But perhaps not so mighty on that night. The crafty lefty got Stanton to strikeout as part of a nine pitch battle, silencing the faithful Yankee fans. Things didn't get easier in the ninth, as Michael Fulmer was out there with the bases loaded and just one out. But he struck out Gleyber Torres, then got Twin for a day Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground out.

2023
The 2023 Minnesota Twins went 19-27 (.413) in one run games. This was the 26th best winning percentage in one run games, or the fifth worst if you want to be a glass half empty person. Okay, another bad year in one run games. This one even worse. But sometimes, winning one run games isn't actually the "X-factor" fans think it is. The 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers went 14-22 (.389) in one run games.

Speaking of the Rangers, that's where we'll go to find a memorable one run win from the 2023 season. The Twins were down 5-0 on August 28th, but then Royce Lewis got them back into the game with a fifth inning grand slam. Donovan Solano tied up the game with a ninth inning RBI knock against Aroldis Chapman.

Extra innings gave us some gross baseball. There were four double plays, two for each team. The teams did trade 12th inning runs, both coming on "productive outs." Nobody wanted to get that big hit. So it's only natural that the game didn't end on a hit. In fact, the Twins didn't even put the ball in play during the 13th inning when they walked things off. Royce Lewis and Ryan Jeffers both struck out with the ghost runner on second base, Joey Gallo and Matt Wallner drew walks, and then Michael A. Taylor also drew a walk. This allowed the ghost runner, we'll call him Carlos Correa, to come in and score the winning run.

2024
The 2024 Minnesota Twins went 22-20 (.524) in one run games. This was the 15th best winning percentage in one run games. Finally, a winning record in one run games again. This brings the six year total for Rocco Baldelli to 118-111 (.515) in one run games.

For the random one run win in 2014, we'll look at July 7th against the Houston Astros. Houston took a 2-0 lead in the second, but then started to get mowed down. Simeon Woods Richardson retired the final 13 hitters he faced. Josh Staumont pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, then Griffin Jax worked around a leadoff double to complete a scoreless eighth. Jhoan Duran had a rough go at it in the ninth, but got himself out of a self created jam.

On the offensive side of things, it was a great day for Christian Vazquez. He drove in all three runs as the Twins won 3-2. An RBI single in the bottom of the second helped get one of those early runs back, and an RBI groundout tied things up in the fourth. Facing all-world closer Josh Hader in the ninth, Vazquez launched a walk-off homer and sent the Target Field faithful home happy.