They played Prince's "Sometimes it Snows in April" on a 37-degree Friday night at Target Field, where Twins second baseman Jorge Polanco made his season debut and runs were hard to create in a 3-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.
The Twins scored their only runs in the third inning, while the lowly Nationals found one in the seventh and two opportunistic ones in the eighth to hand the Twins their fifth loss in six games as they opened a 10-game homestand to finish out April.
Tyler Mahle went into the seventh inning for the first time with the Twins and gave up only three hits, but one was designated hitter Joey Meneses' seventh-inning solo home run that turned the momentum. He was the last hitter Mahle faced on a frigid night for baseball.
"I felt good, I didn't feel cold, which was a plus," Mahle said. "I knew the fielders were cold. They're just standing there. But I was able to stay warm. I had a pretty good game."
Caleb Thielbar got the Twins to the eighth, but Griffin Jax gave up three hits with two outs and nobody on that produced the tying and winning runs in such weather.
"Our bullpen probably wasn't as sharp as we'd normally like to see," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We were fairly effective. Even Jax who gave up the runs, those balls aren't hit good, but they battled. When you put the ball in play and use the whole field, things can work out for you."
Baldelli called the cold conditions "as you assume."
"But they're consistent, both teams are dealing with the same things," he said. "No excuses out there. You know there's going to be a different brand of baseball being played. It's not going to be a high-flying affair with balls flying all over the place and tons of runs on the board. We know that.
