The Twins Turned On the Lights With A 10-4 Win Over Tampa Bay

Minneapolis –  At 1:53 pm, an hour and 17 minutes before the first pitch of the season at Target Field, everything went dark. Literally.

A power outage hit Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood as Minnesota Twins fans entered through the gates, excited for $2 beers, snacks, and another season of Twins baseball. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything went dark. It took Xcel Energy 57 minutes to restore power, but by 4:05, the Twins' home opener was officially underway.

“It's something out of our control,” said Twins manager Derek Shelton. “You're not in a building very much where the lights flicker and then stay off. To be able to get back, we really appreciate everybody to getting us back up. Opening Day is such a special day. When you have a power delay in downtown, I don't think you expect that.”

The power outage didn’t turn into a bad omen for the Twins. They crushed the Rays 10-4, winning their first home opener since 2023 against the Houston Astros. Both teams sent their tallest starter to the mound for this one, with the 6’9" Bailey Ober going up against the 6’8" Joe Boyle.

“We’re going to have a jump ball at the beginning of the game,” Shelton joked. “So it’ll go for a possession, but we are going to be the home team. That is going to be the one thing that is going to be different; we are going to have a jump ball.”

There was no jump ball, but this game had about everything else. A second baseman committing an illegal defensive shift, a seventh-inning, seven-run rally following a hit-by-pitch that saw Twins star Byron Buxton exit due to a right forearm contusion, and a grand slam from an unlikely player who just made their first Opening Day roster.

Buxton’s X-rays came back negative, though, and he was walking around normally in the clubhouse postgame. After Buxton’s exit, James Outman came in off the bench as a pinch runner. Outman had already been told to be ready to come into the game with the game tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh.

Outman wasted no time and stole second on the first pitch of Luke Keaschall’s at-bat to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. From there, the Outman scored on an RBI single from Josh Bell to make it a 4-3 game, and get the Twins started on their 7-run rally.

"Grady just gave me a brief rundown, and luckily, they had told me to get moving a little bit before that for a different reason,” Outman said. “So I was warm and figured that would be a good time to go. Tied game that I think it's a good situation to run there."

Gray’s Moment In the Spotlight

Twins shortstop Tristan Gray got the start in back-to-back games as Brooks Lee has been battling an illness. Gray was taking a nap in the Twins' nap room that was established during Nelson Cruz’s days with the team when the power went out at Target Field pre-game.

“I opened the door, and the lights went off, so I got a little flustered, not knowing where I was at,” Gray said. “We were just hanging out. But they told us it would be 50 minutes from whenever the power came on.”

Gray may have well thought he could have been dreaming when that door opened, but the rest of his night was a delightful reality. He came up with the bases loaded not once, but twice in the game. The first time ended in a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 3-3.

The swing felt good for Gray there, but he knew he’d want to get more underneath if another opportunity came up. Thankfully for him, it did. The Twins once again had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the seventh, and Gray came up to face RHP Yoendrys Gómez, who’d just entered the game for the Rays.

"He had a good carry heater up top, so I set my top," Gray said on his approach. "I was trying to go to left-center. I swing at the 0-1, I think it was. Or 1-0. And then I was like, all right, I’m going to keep that tunnel. I thought it was a heater until the last second. So just the bat path helped it out and kept it fair."

That fair ball carried over the right field wall and landed in the flower pots for his first career grand slam, and gave the Twins their 10-3 lead.

"It was really just a relief," Gray said. "I was a little upset about the second time, not getting the job done. So just staying with it and trusting that all of our preparation was going to come through. Thankfully, it did."

Only Gray’s agent was in attendance for the game. His wife, Madelyn, and one-year-old daughter were back home in Houston as Madelyn is 32 weeks pregnant with their second child. Even though she couldn’t witness the moment in person, Gray’s wife sent numerous texts about how ecstatic she was to see the grand slam on TV.

While Madelyn Gray couldn’t celebrate with her husband in person postgame, his Twins teammates were more than amped for his accomplishment.

“He looks phenomenal right now at the plate putting some great swings on balls, and obviously he came up huge with that grand slam,” said Ober. “It’s been really awesome to watch and [he’s a] great teammate.”

“That was sick,” Buxton said. “His first Opening Day was this year. To have that moment, there is nothing like it. A little better conditions would’ve been way better, but it was awesome.”

The grand slam was even more rewarding for Gray since he and Madelyn talked about what things could have looked like for him if he hadn’t made the Twins roster.

"Honestly, at the end of spring, it was just a talk with my wife of just game plan on what we were going to do and those thoughts definitely creeped in," Gray said. "Thankfully, the next day I got told I made the team, so it's pretty crazy how that works out."

Challenging an Illegal Shift

The Rays infield played as heavily on their infield shift as they could, with their second baseman, Ben Williamson, directly behind the second base bag against right-handed hitters.

Twins replay coordinator Joey Casey had taken notice of Williamson’s heavy shift in the fifth inning when Luke Keaschall grounded out to Williamson just behind the bag. The Twins didn’t challenge in time, so when Ryan Jeffers hit a ground ball up the middle directly where Williamson’s feet were planted, the Twins saw their opportunity to make a challenge on whether or not he was making an illegal shift behind second.

The Twins challenge worked, and Jeffers original 4-3 groundout turned into an E4 fielder's choice.

“After Keasch's ball, we thought we had a pretty good case," said Shelton. "I've not seen that. I've seen standing on the edge of the grass. But I don't think I've seen that called. It was good. It has to be egregious, and I think it was egregious.”

Twins are set for a 6:10 pm start in game two of their three-game series against the Rays Saturday. Mick Abel will make his first start of the year against veteran Steven Matz.