When fans headed to Target Field on Friday to see the Twins play the Rangers, they could no longer bring backpacks, duffels or laptop bags.

Starting then, only single-compartment bags under the stadium's new size limit — 16 by 16 by 8 inch­es — are allowed in the ballpark.

The policy was announced in June af­ter large crowds cre­at­ed logjams outside the stadium at late spring games. The restrictions aim to re­duce the time for se­curi­ty to check each bag "with the end re­sult of getting our fans into the ball­park quick­ly and safe­ly," Twins Pres­i­dent Dave St. Peter said.

Purs­es, clutch­es, single-com­part­ment totes, clear bags, draw­string bags, dia­per bags, soft-sid­ed cool­ers and med­i­cal items are still al­lowed. Those with bags that are 9 by 5 inch­es or small­er can en­ter via express lanes.

A third-par­ty com­pany will pro­vide a free on-site bag check serv­ice for those un­aware of the pol­icy through the end of July. Af­ter that, the com­pany will charge a fee.

Last month, the Twins stopped re­quir­ing fans to emp­ty their pock­ets of cell­phones, keys and wal­lets when walk­ing through se­curi­ty at the ball­park's gates af­ter Target Field mag­netom­eters were up­dat­ed to rec­og­nize such com­mon items.

Twins spokesman Matt Hodson said late Friday that fans were "well-prepared" for the new policy and that long lines before the game, a projected sellout, moved swiftly enough that all fans were in the stadium by the time the game began.

Staff writer Pamela Miller contributed to this report. Katie Galioto • 612-673-4478