Twins 4, Orioles 1: Royce Lewis Powers Twins to First Win of 2026

[Steven Trefz]

Image courtesy of © Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

Box Score
SP: Taj Bradley - 4 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K (92 pitches, 58 strikes (63% strikes))
Home Runs: Royce Lewis (1)
Top 3 WPA: Lewis (0.20), Eric Orze (0.13), Bradley (0.11)

Win Probability Chart

Taj Battles Early, While Twins Bats Do Not  
The Twins went 18-32-2 in their series in 2025, including going 7-19 in road series and 1-7 in series to end the season. A loss on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore would keep the worst kind of momentum alive, while a victory could give early hope to a season that desperately need it. On a day where Griffin Jax lost the game for the Rays down in St. Louis, his trade counterpart Taj Bradley took the hill for the Rays hoping to establish himself as a fixture in the Twins rotation for years to come. Bradley only had 73 starts before Saturday, but he'd already faced the Orioles seven times. Would this familiarity be enough to get the Twins back into the win column?

Bradley struck out the first two Orioles that he faced, but then surrendered the Polar Bear's first hit for his new club. Two walks later, and Bradley was facing a 30-plus pitch inning and loaded bases. A 98-mph heater blew by Dylan Beavers, however, and the Twins escaped the first inning unscathed. Meanwhile RHP Kyle Bradish made quick work of the Twins lineup through the first two innings, only allowing a walk to Ryan Jeffers in the second.

In the bottom of the second, Bradley again got the first out quickly, but he soon gave up a 103.9 mph double to Colton Cowser on a 1-2 count. On the very next pitch, Jeremiah Jackson laced a hanging cutter into left to plate Cowser and put the Orioles up 1-0. That was all of the offense that Baltimore would mount against the young hurler, as Bradley battled his way into the fifth inning while making some Twins history of his own. In the bottom of the third inning, Bradley struck out Adley Rutschman with a 100-mph fastball, the fastest recorded pitch by a Twins starter in the StatCast era!

Buxton and Lewis Ignite the Offense
In the anticlimactic season opener, Byron Buxton was the lone bright spot as he flashed power and speed to help manufacture the Twins' only run. In the top of the fourth inning on Saturday, in his 900th career game, the Buck Truck led off and showed how speed kills yet again. The action started with a successful Twins challenge, by Grady Sizemore via the Twins bench, as Buxton's slow grounder up the middle was fielded but Jackson's throw was unable to catch the racing Buxton down the line. Buxton took second on a fly ball to center. Yes. On a fly ball to center. Then Rutschman tried to catch Buxton sleeping off of second, but his throw down glanced off of back of Buxton's helmet and headed out into center field which allowed Buxton to advance to third. After Matt Wallner drew his third walk of the season, Josh Bell stepped up and delivered a sacrifice fly to shallow left. Not many ballplayers could score on that ball, but the Buck Truck is one of them. 1-1 ballgame, and Bell notched his first RBI for his new club.

Trevor Larnach started the fourth inning by working a well-earned walk. Royce Lewis and his well-documented early spring training struggles strode to the plate. On a fastball that was riding in on his hands, Lewis turned on it and drilled a low line drive that carried just beyond the outfield wall. By the time he circled the bases and touched the plate, it was 3-1 Minnesota, and the Twins had their first home run of the season.

Early Struggles Put Pressure on Revamped Twins Pen
While Bradley held the Orioles to only one run, he also only managed to last 4 1/3 innings. New Twins lefty reliever Anthony Banda entered in the bottom of the fifth and immediately drew the ire of Gunnar Henderson by hitting him up and in on the hands. The rest of Banda's debut was "effectively wild" as the hit by pitch and a walk to Rutschman were offset by two strike outs.

Lefty Kody Funderburk got the call for the sixth, and he struck out the first two Orioles that he faced. Ryan Mountcastle and Jackson took advantage of pitches in the zone for singles, and it was time for another new arm to make his Twins debut. Righty Eric Orze also appeared to feel the nerves of outing number one, walking Taylor Ward to load the bases and running the count full to Henderson before Gunnar gracefully flew out on ball four to end the threat.

Baseball the Shelton Way
The aggressive works of Derek Shelton continued to manifest hope across Twins Territory in the top of the seventh inning. Lewis worked a one-out walk, and while Brooks Lee flailed into a strike out, Lewis stole second base. Kody Clemens, batting leadoff in his first start of the season, laced a line drive into center field and plated Lewis to add an insurance run to make it 4-1. 

Shelton's strategy continued into the bottom of the seventh, with James Outman taking Larnach's place in left. Again, immediate dividends were reaped as Alonso flew out to Outman on a nice foul-territory play to help fuel Orze to a three up, three down innings. Justin Topa got the confidence of his manager to find some redemption in the bottom of the eighth, and another three up, three down innings was the payoff for that confidence. 

Cole Sands filled the closer role for the first save opportunity of the season, and he struck out Jackson swinging on a big curve ball. Taylor Ward took a four-pitch walk and then struck out Henderson on a high cutter. With the insurance run sitting in his back pocket, Sands toed the rubber against Alonso and immediately induced a game-ending groundout to seal the first Twins victory of the 2026 season!

Other Notes
There were three challenged pitch calls and one challenged call on the bases. The overturned call on the bases led to a run for the Twins, and the final challenged pitch call by Jeffers behind the plate led to a Topa strikeout. Jeffers unsuccessfully challenged a ball call earlier in the game.

What’s Next?
The Twins will hope to grab their first series win of the season against the Orioles on Sunday afternoon in Baltimore. The Twins will send RHP Bailey Ober to the mound for his first start of the season to face former Rays first round pick RHP Shane Baz. Baz just signed a five-year, $68 million contract with the Orioles who acquired him in a trade with the Rays this offseason. This not only prevents Ober from making the dreaded early-season Kansas City start in the next series but also gives the Twins offense a chance to keep its lefty-heavy lineup rolling. First pitch is scheduled for 12:35pm CDT.

Postgame Interviews 

 

Bullpen Availability Chart 

	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	TOT
Topa	0	0	18	0	12	30
Funderburk	0	0	17	0	13	30
Orze	0	0	0	0	21	21
Sands	0	0	0	0	16	16
Banda	0	0	0	0	15	15
Rogers	0	0	10	0	0	10
Laweryson	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kent	0	0	0	0	0	0

 

 

 

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[bunsen82]

That highlight of the Lewis homerun just makes me shake my head.  Why would you ever throw inside to Lewis.  Right now that is the only pitch he can hit,  yes he can hit it a mile.  Inside pitch he pulled.   Im still very concerned on his approach.  

[Permanent Twins Fan]

Best bullpen in Baseball?

[ashbury]

23 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

That highlight of the Lewis homerun just makes me shake my head.  Why would you ever throw inside to Lewis.  Right now that is the only pitch he can hit,  yes he can hit it a mile.  Inside pitch he pulled.   Im still very concerned on his approach.  

Brian Dozier made a good living feasting on mistake pitches high and inside.  The open question is whether Royce Lewis can be similar about staying alive long enough on the assortment of other pitches he sees.  But I can enjoy this one today.

 

[Riverbrian]

Congratulations to Derek Shelton on his first win as the manager of our Minnesota Twins. 

Loved the Royce home run. This team needs Royce to be the Royce that was basically promised to us. So... I loved the Royce home run. 

It'll be Wallner's turn tomorrow. I'm calling it.

 

Taj Bradley with a great start. I loved that. The guy has stuff. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Fun game to watch. Its nice to get a win. See if Ober can keep it going tomorrow! 

[twinstalker]

10 minutes ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Fun game to watch. Its nice to get a win. See if Ober can keep it going tomorrow! 

If he doesn't get his **** together, Ober might drive Uber by the end of the season.  Here's hoping!

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Very mature performance by Bradley. He gutted out a long first inning and got back in there and threw smoke the rest of the way. He needs to trust his stuff and get ahead in the counts.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Buck was so much fun to watch yesterday and today. His speed is a game changer.  

[jorgenswest]

I appreciated that Shelton didn’t make bench moves mid game when Ens came in.  The Orioles don’t have a late inning lefty.

I also appreciated that Bradley had a chance to work out of trouble in the early innings.

[Bodie]

Nice to see...

Hustle, highlighted by Buxton.  

Sac fly by Bell.  He needs to be an RBI guy, and they come in all shapes and sizes. 

Power, in this case Lewis.  We know he can hit them, it'd be nice to actually see it semi regularly. 

Solid defense and pitching.  Never hurts!  Good job Taj - show that you'll battle and you'll get a bit more leeway when things aren't ideal. 

[Linus]

You can see what the Twins liked in getting Bradley. He obviously needs to throw more strikes but he has some electric stuff. While Royce should concern anyone paying attention I think his setup and approach looks much better. Lower hands and a small leg kick / tap leaves him much quieter in the box. Here’s hoping it makes the difference. 

[D.C Twins]

If there is a true reemergence of Royce F-ing Lewis!  that would be a very big deal indeed for this season. 

Fingers crossed.....

[WarPath1211]

I was at this game today! Drove down from Philly for the day to catch it in-person!

Taj really labored at times, but got the strikeouts when he needed them. It was a little odd because he was effectively wild striking out the side in the 1st inning but leaving the bases loaded, and then Taj started to get hit pretty hard in the 2nd and survived giving up only one, and then he settled in without issue the rest of the way. Obviously would love to see the efficiency go up as the season goes on, and there were ups and downs today, but it was good enough.

The much-maligned bullpen also earned their flowers today, particularly Orze, Topa, and Sands. They collectively allowed 1 baserunner in the last 3 innings, and took the crowd completely out of the game. The stands were pretty empty as Sands was finishing off the game, and the energy was gone.

16 strikeouts for the pitching staff today was great to see as a Twins fan, but honestly made viewing in-person a little odd at times because it seemed there were barely any balls in play and the rest of the diamond wasn’t needed!

[jmlease1]

Bradley had to battle through it, but dang he's got good stuff. Hopefully he can get deeper in games.

Nice to see Royce crack one. He's a confidence player, so that could be the sort of thing that gets him on a roll. Was nice to see him swipe a bag too.

Bullpen got it done. Funderburk was a bit unlucky; neither hit he gave up was especially hard hit.

Good win.

[RaoulDuke]

Bradley's stuff is impressive, there is a nasty pitcher in there if they can get him to be consistent.  Hopefully he can find the command and control to be a long term fixture in the rotation but should that not work out he would be a nasty reliever.

Great to see a good Royce game early, get that confidence building and lets regain some of that magic that he had first breaking out.

It is no surprise but the pen is going to be a major issue, this rotation is not stocked with guys that are going to go deep into games and Funderburk as the fireman, Topa a setup, and Sands/ Rogers getting save ops is far from ideal.  I really hope Festa is transitioned when he gets healthy enough to pitch they need a big arm at the back end of things. 

[JD-TWINS]

Buxton is really trying to lift the club with his efforts …… really impressive!

17 K’s by the Staff today (7K over 4 1/3 by the Pen) ……..3 runs allowed over 18 innings.

“Keep the left handed line-up rolling…..”????? Lewis had one hit and Buxton had 2 today ……… that leaves ONE hit from our bevy of lefties. Scoring 4 runs on 4 hits was fortuitous!!

Does Brooks Lee look even worse than last year, through (a not very fair) two contests?

[AlLagoon]

39 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

17 K’s by the Staff today (7K over 4 1/3 by the Pen) ……..3 runs allowed over 18 innings.

Oriole fans gotta be puzzled by that.

[Blyleven2011]

Got the first win today  , let's hopefully take the series on Sunday ...

Bradley going 4 plus innings  , I cringed when we went to the bullpen  ...

Team effort win games ..

[Peter]

Huge important win!!! Royce with the big 2 run home run/taj with 9 K’s bullpen shutting down orioles but had nervous moments with bases loaded jam but got out of it!!! 17 K’s overall!!! Lets get win today and take this series!!! 

[karcherd]

Bradley was who he has been and why the Rays traded him.  He has not been able to find consistency and does have good stuff.  I really hope they can unlock something with him but otherwise I think he would be the candidate to move to the bullpen.

[JD-TWINS]

6 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

Got the first win today  , let's hopefully take the series on Sunday ...

Bradley going 4 plus innings  , I cringed when we went to the bullpen  ...

Team effort win games ..

😁 gonna see the Pen everyday, buckle up!

Scraping 4 runs from 4 hits is commendable!

[Coach Wheels]

11 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Congratulations to Derek Shelton on his first win as the manager of our Minnesota Twins. 

Loved the Royce home run. This team needs Royce to be the Royce that was basically promised to us. So... I loved the Royce home run. 

It'll be Wallner's turn tomorrow. I'm calling it.

 

Taj Bradley with a great start. I loved that. The guy has stuff. 

I was impressed with Bradley's velocity, into the 5th inning, good to see.

4 hits won't win many games but it did yesterday, I'll take it.

[JD-TWINS]

I get that it may STILL be too soon but both Duran & Jax blew saves and took L’s Saturday. Falvey may have been doing shots somewhere, toasting the MN fan base.

Bradley is flawed or the Ray’s wouldn’t have traded him - he’s got nice upside or the Twins wouldn’t have given up Jax for him. TIME will tell!

The biggest concern, since August 15 of ‘24, OFFENSE! Root cause……..#1 Picks (other than Buxton) have been mediocre to just bad! Guys that need to look in the mirror are Larnach Lee - Lewis - Martin - Wallner …… that group of #1’s are the Club’s issue. Sure, all of them have had good 3 weeks here or there, but as a whole, they are ALL underperforming.

Then there’s the Zero spending on offense! ……… Cannot “be competitive” when the stacked LH hitting line-up gets ONE hit from those lefties!! Clemens came through with the LONE left handed hit of the day, but relying on Kody is not the recipe for a “competitive Club”.

I get that St Paul is not the same situation as Baltimore! TWO games in - the contrast between Culpepper and Lee seems to be tough to ignore for long. Hopefully, Kaelin keeps pushing and can contribute OR at least get some opportunity by mid-May. Keep pushing A. Roden!

[Jeff K]

11 hours ago, Linus said:

You can see what the Twins liked in getting Bradley. He obviously needs to throw more strikes but he has some electric stuff. While Royce should concern anyone paying attention I think his setup and approach looks much better. Lower hands and a small leg kick / tap leaves him much quieter in the box. Here’s hoping it makes the difference. 

I thought this was the Twins best deadline trade.  Still remains to be seen, but Jax has been bad both games thus far and Bradley indeed has electric stuff.

[Old Twins Hat]

Kind of funny that every baseball expert, and much of the TD illuminatti, bashed the Twins as losers because of trading their Bullpen at the deadline last year.  Zero percent chance of making the playoffs, and less than that of winning the World Series.  (Trump math.)

It's early, but the Twins bullpen, affectionately known as the Pagans, after former reliever Emiliano Pagan, is doing okay.  

And for those who want to continue to bash the pen, there are potentially high-end replacement parts:  Prielipp, Klein, Raya, and now Drew Smith, formerly a pretty good Met, Altavilla, Bowman, Brebbia, and in the mother of all coincidences, a guy named Bash.

So, go ahead, bash the Bash, or, I guess the Pagans, but this is why insiders keep saying it:  rebuilding a bullpen in MLB is a hell of a lot easier, cheaper, quicker and generally more doable, than trying to put together five good starters.  And the Twins may get to five good starters yet, even without Pablo.

Can Sands close?  Maybe.  Will Drew Smith?  Who knows?  We just know that over time, quality will rise to the top and they will have credibility as a group.  

It's the offense that will need to step up.  And if they don't?  There's Jenkins, Culpepper, Gonzales, Rodriguez and Roden waiting in the wings.

Could be an exciting year.  And yes, in the immortal words of Tom Pohlad, another guy whose name is regularly "bashed", a competitive year.

Go Twins.

 

[Squirrel]

13 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

It'll be Wallner's turn tomorrow. I'm calling it.

Calling it or jinxing it?

[arby58]

11 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

“Keep the left handed line-up rolling…..”????? Lewis had one hit and Buxton had 2 today ……… that leaves ONE hit from our bevy of lefties.

True, although Wallner has three walks through two games, which is how he's got a .375 OBP. 

[NYCTK]

 

1 hour ago, Old Twins Hat said:

Prielipp, Klein, Raya, and now Drew Smith, formerly a pretty good Met,

I actually missed that the Twins signed Drew Smith. Good get. He could eventually slot into the high leverage mix. 

 

1 hour ago, Old Twins Hat said:

rebuilding a bullpen in MLB is a hell of a lot easier, cheaper, quicker and generally more doable, than trying to put together five good starters. 

Absolutely. I still say there's a decent chance both that: 

• The 2026 Bullpen performs better than the pre-deadline 2025 Bullpen
• The Bullpen performs the best relative to the rest of the league, compared to the offense, defense, and rotation

[laloesch]

Bradley has good stuff just needs refining