Twins 6, White Sox 1: Twins Bats Stay Hot To Win Series

[Sherry Cerny]

Rain threatened to cancel the rubber game of the Twins' series with the White Sox, but neither team relished their options for a rescheduled contest, so the game went on. On a cold, wet day, the Twins' bats continued to warm up.

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Pablo López 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K (98 pitches, 67 strikes (68.3%))
Home Runs: Byron Buxton (1), Harrison Bader (3)

Top 3 WPA: Pablo López .237, Harrison Bader .223, Byron Buxton .116
Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs)

The Twins got off to a hot start, with a 446-foot bomb to left-center field by the driver of the Buck Truck. In his first at bat of the game, Buxton hit his first homer of the year to put the Twins up immediately, 1-0. 

 

The Twins have had a rough time with their plate appearances, followed by their deja vu issues with runners in scoring position, but there has now been a turning point. The past two games have shown that the offense just needed to get going and that’s exactly what they did. Fresh starts for everyone.

Pablo López, who lost his first game of the season, wasted no time following Buxton’s vigor by striking out two hitters. He served up a hittable pitch and suffered hard contact from the Sox's Nick Maton, but a flying Buxton snared the ball to end the frame. López threw 12 pitches, two pitches shy of his 10-pitch goal per inning. 

No longer held hostage by a dead bat, Carlos Correa managed to get a ground ball into the hole between first and second to get him onto his first official base of the season. It was a moment to celebrate and bask in relief.

First baseman Ty France hit a bloop into center field in the top of the fourth to get another rally started, followed by Willi Castro, who was (shocker!) hit by a pitch. Harrison Bader, the charismatic king of crop tops who has been the most consistent bat in the lineup thus far, came to the plate and did what he does, and got a three-run home run, his third of the season, to move the Twins up 4-0. 

 

After an 0-18 start, Correa got his second consecutive hit of the season and this game in the fifth, ripping a double that paved the way for an RBI double from Buxton. That put the Twins up 5-0 with only one out. The White Sox replaced Sean Burke with Cam Booser on the mound, but that didn’t slow down the Twins. France got his fourth hit in seven at-bats, an RBI double to score Buxton making it 6-0.

The rain that delayed the start of the game by three hours and change once again appeared in the top of the seventh inning, but the game continued, with Lopez pitching right through it. He gave up his first run of the game, a solo home run to Baldwin off a high changeup; blame it on the rain. He still finished seven strong frames.

The game made it all nine innings and ended with the Twins on top! Two games, two wins. Let's just forget what came before them. Can they continue the streak when they come home?

What’s Next? 
The Twins come home to have their home series against the Houston Astros. Joe Ryan (0-0; 1.80 ERA) taking the bump against Hunter Brown (0-1; 3.oo ERA) at 3:10PM CST. Target Field has some great new eats, so if you are coming to the game, check them out!

Postgame Interviews

Bullpen Usage Report

View full article

[JD-TWINS]

Buxton got going - Correa got going - Bader is making all detractors eat their words early on this year…….I thought he might have 3 homers by Memorial Day.

Entire Central Division is 2-4 and the Twins have a 2 game win streak going while everyone else lost on Wednesday. Big MO!

Lopez got his ERA down to 2.25 and his WHIP down around 1.08…………Hope Joe is sharp again Thursday.

Astros are in for a treat with highs in the low 40’s for the whole series. Twins need another series win…….back to .500 in a week?

[GNess]

A sense of balance and perspective about the Twins potential may now be more possible based on these earliest of results. Good to see the team looking like they were enjoying themselves.

[Blyleven2011]

I can't resist , i love my Twins , but after the first 4 games played I really was thinking the twins wouldn't win any games ...

What a difference a month makes ...

[Blyleven2011]

Today was a good game , got the lead and held it ...

Lopez hit his spots  , buxton hits a solo homer , Bader hits another 3 run homerun  and off to a good start  , lets hope we have a diamond in the ruff , 

We were 3 for 6 with runners in scoring position and only stranded 3  , nobody walked and is it just be my imagination , but when was the last time the team struck out less than 5 times ...

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

From ‘season over’ to 1st place, in just 24 hours! 

[DocBauer]

So the sky isn't actually falling after 6 games?

Whew! I was about to call my insurance agency. 

Thank goodness we aren't the Braves after 6 games. 😉

[DocBauer]

BUT...BTW...WTF is up with Bader?!

[gregens]

26 minutes ago, DocBauer said:

BUT...BTW...WTF is up with Bader?!

Hopefully it's not just temporary insanity.

[Danchat]

Correa and Buxton are going to hit, them slumping is going to be confined to smaller sample sizes... but it would be cool if Bader's hitting continues past this first week. Would be Santana-like in the way our expectations were surpassed.

[knothole61]

It's really sweet to have ended the four game horror so resolutely: suddenly Correa is a hitter again, Alcala a beast, Lopez an ace, and Bader a free agency miracle. Phew...and yet, the Twins beat the White Sox, (a team still projected to win only 53) in games that were essentially played on a neutral site, as there really couldn't have been much more than 1,000 Sox fans attending in today's drear.

I'm happy with this turn of events, but regarding a resolution of my concern for the fate of the 2025 Twins I recall Churchill's words following the significant British victory at El Alamein: "This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning."

Win Twins...           

[darin617]

Please remember they just beat a AAAA team. It's embarrassing to see how bad the White Sox have become.

[h2oface]

Correa got a hit. That’s a positive. 
 

Saw the TD poll on how many games are the Twins going to win just before the comments. Right after I saw this poll on MLB TradeRumors, that had the Twins finishing last in AL Central after 4039 votes. 
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/04/poll-who-will-win-the-al-central-3.html

[stringer bell]

All the teams in the Central have only played six games. It is way early to make final judgments. That said, there's plenty to be concerned about. The Twins played a middle-of-the-road team and a bad team in six games and only won two, and they were beaten pretty soundly in all four losses. The starting pitching had three bad starts, one meh, one pretty good and one better than good start. That isn't enough good pitching. The bullpen let one game get away and allowed opponents to add on a couple times, so not very good. The hitting has been abysmal, but the worst offenders are guys with records of being good hitters. Finally, the defense doesn't look any better in the infield. 

On the plus side, newcomers Bader and France have been outstanding and satisfactory respectively. Byron Buxton has started six straight games in center field and the Twins haven't dug a hole despite a cold start.

 

[KirbyDome89]

3 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Buxton got going - Correa got going - Bader is making all detractors eat their words early on this year…….I thought he might have 3 homers by Memorial Day.

Entire Central Division is 2-4 and the Twins have a 2 game win streak going while everyone else lost on Wednesday. Big MO!

Lopez got his ERA down to 2.25 and his WHIP down around 1.08…………Hope Joe is sharp again Thursday.

Astros are in for a treat with highs in the low 40’s for the whole series. Twins need another series win…….back to .500 in a week?

Bader has started 4 of the first 6 games, and every one has been against RHP which he historically hasn't hit. That was the primary concern of the "detractors." Unless you think he's suddenly discovered how to reverse that trend at age 31, or 3/4 of his hits will leave the park, it's probably premature to be serving up crow...

[Nashvilletwin]

Great team win today in all three phases: hitting, fielding and pitching.  Even better than yesterday.

Bader is really growing on me.  He plays the game with obvious enthusiasm and emotion.  That’s fun to watch and something the team needs.

France is growing on me too.

Julien absolutely smoked three balls today (oppo line drive single and two 400 ft fly outs to the track in dead center).  His hit last night was critical.    Good signs.

Nice the game was played. Leave Chicago with a series win and a little momentum.  Those post-game long - neck Buds sure taste a lot better.

[UK Twin]

I was optimistic about Bader when we signed him. He may not hit for a good BA but he has pop in his bat - can hit HR's I believe I said at the time. Well he's hit 3 clutch HR's so far - not bad! After 1 week he's tied for 3rd in MLB in HR's (same as a certain Japanese two way player having played 2 fewer games). Also tied for 3rd in RBI's. Now he's clearly not going to stay that high in the stats but so far, so very good from him. 

Good to see Buck absolutely crush that hanging breaking ball in his first AB. That ball went miles. You can definitely see everyone is more relaxed now we have some wins on the board. 

Lopez excellent and efficient as well, enabling him to go 7 innings. Good to get some momentum ahead of the home opener against Houston. 

[UK Twin]

4 hours ago, darin617 said:

Please remember they just beat a AAAA team. It's embarrassing to see how bad the White Sox have become.

While there is something to that, when you start 0-4 I don't think that matters too much. The pressure to get the first win was mounting very quickly and we needed 2 well played ball games to get back to 2-4 and we got them.

[Fatbat]

Is it just me or does Bader look like 1987 Dan Gladden….

[Bodie]

1 hour ago, Fatbat said:

Is it just me or does Bader look like 1987 Dan Gladden….

Don't think The Wrench was ever that swole (as the kids say)...

[Doctor Gast]

MLB Trade Rumors had a poll: Who do you think will win the AL Central? MN was dead last behind CWS. Dead last! I guess that's how they were playing until now. Hope for some fire & better days.

[Riverbrian]

7 hours ago, stringer bell said:

All the teams in the Central have only played six games. It is way early to make final judgments. That said, there's plenty to be concerned about. The Twins played a middle-of-the-road team and a bad team in six games and only won two, and they were beaten pretty soundly in all four losses. The starting pitching had three bad starts, one meh, one pretty good and one better than good start. That isn't enough good pitching. The bullpen let one game get away and allowed opponents to add on a couple times, so not very good. The hitting has been abysmal, but the worst offenders are guys with records of being good hitters. Finally, the defense doesn't look any better in the infield. 

On the plus side, newcomers Bader and France have been outstanding and satisfactory respectively. Byron Buxton has started six straight games in center field and the Twins haven't dug a hole despite a cold start.

 

Its the home opener. I checked the standings this morning. 

I noticed that we were in first place in the AL Central. 

Others will notice that we are in last place in the AL Central. 

[Linus]

Buck on full display to start the game. Moonshot Homer followed by a great catch in the wind. 

[Whitey333]

Great win yesterday.  Well played game all around.  Just like the first four games were just that onlyb4 games.  The same can be said of the last two games.  It's only two games.  Actually a game and a half.  They didn't play well the first 5 innings against a pitcher making his major league debut.  But they played great yesterday.  Hopefully this is the start of a good trend.  Tw

[Fatbat]

1 hour ago, Bodie said:

Don't think The Wrench was ever that swole (as the kids say)...

Thanks funny!  I was thinking more of his swing and mannerisms 🤡

[Fatbat]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Its the home opener. I checked the standings this morning. 

I noticed that we were in first place in the AL Central. 

Others will notice that we are in last place in the AL Central. 

If you’re not first, you’re last. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

9 hours ago, darin617 said:

Please remember they just beat a AAAA team. It's embarrassing to see how bad the White Sox have become.

I'm not embarrassed to see how bad the White Sox have become. To quote "The Hawk"..."They gone!"  Now if Duke will just lose.

[LambchoP]

Bader better not be on the bench today. Rocco being Rocco though, I wouldn't be surprised.

[ryanking61]

That's 2 in a row, insert the Major League Clip 

[Riverbrian]

58 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

If you’re not first, you’re last. 

At 8;50am on April 3rd, 2025. Our Twins are both first and last at the same time.

Umm... Also 2nd, 3rd and 4th.