Precisely 20 weeks after the celebrity tandem of Juice Sutton and Joe Pohlad ignited a crowd gathered at the Mall of America by introducing a "new era of Twins baseball," the athletes on Friday returned to Target Field for the franchise's 63rd home opener in Minnesota.
There have been several eras — excellent, mediocre, bad and abysmal — in this ballclub's decades among us, although this is the first based largely on laundry.
Unfortunately, the key ingredient in the new wardrobe, the bold M with a star above it on the ball cap, goes with road uniforms. The home clothing has a more traditional look, with TC on the cap, and "Twins" in large cursive across the front of the jersey.
The home debut of the new era also featured the gigantic videoboard with the crystal-clear graphics.
As it turned out, it took until the bottom of the 10th for the $30 million board to show highlights that caused large celebration for home fans in a sellout crowd announced at 38,465.
First, there was Jose Miranda's tying single the other way, followed by Kyle Farmer's single up the middle to provide the Twins with a 3-2 victory over Houston's World Series champions.
Before that, it was tie between starting pitcher Sonny Gray's career-high 13 strikeouts, and Carlos Correa's futility in what could have been game-turning at-bats, as the most intriguing elements for the Twins.
Gray had mentioned a strong urge to pitch longer into games in 2023 while in spring training. He had control issues, walking four in his first start at Kansas City, and was hooked after five scoreless innings.
