ST. LOUIS — Much like their new television product, the Minnesota Twins had difficulty at the start of Thursday’s game. The early struggles for both resulted in a rough debut to the 2025 season.
Whether it was an unfortunately played Cleveland Guardians hype video over the airwaves, St. Louis Cardinals hitters finding every hole early or Pablo López failing to execute a pair of key pickoff plays, nothing went the Twins’ way.
Hoping to begin a new season with good vibes, the Twins struggled to shed the remnants of last year’s negatives ones until it was too late. After trailing by four runs early, the Twins rallied and nearly came all the way back before succumbing 5-3 to the Cardinals in front of an announced crowd of 47,395 at Busch Stadium.
López was charged with a balk, made a throwing error and surrendered four runs (two earned) and eight hits, including four with two strikes, all before the fourth inning.
“I could have gotten both of those guys out,” López said. “I balked, and we practice early break step-off so much in spring training, and I didn’t execute it a single time. But I feel like if I would have just stayed a little more under control, slowed the game down a little bit, those could have been two free outs that could have been huge in the game.”
This should have been a joyous day for the Twins.
Off the field, the Twins spent all offseason dreaming of operating their own blackout-free television/streaming combination. On the field, the team worked overtime in Florida the past six weeks preparing for the start of the season.
Unlike last season, when they slumped to a 7-13 start, the Twins wanted to break out of the gates in 2025.
Yet, Thursday, little went according to plan early.
Similar to the team’s broadcast woes (more on that later), the Twins through the first three innings looked nothing like the team they aim to be.
The season began with former teammate Sonny Gray needing only six pitches to retire the Twins in order in the first inning followed by a lengthy inning for the St. Louis offense against López.
Lars Nootbaar started the Cardinals’ first rally with a single on a 2-2 fastball from López. Shortly thereafter, Nootbaar took off for second base and López alertly noticed, but apparently flinched his hands before moving his feet, which drew a balk call from second-base umpire Mike Estabrook. Two batters later, Brendan Donovan singled off the glove of Carlos Correa on a 1-2 changeup to put St. Louis ahead.
Though the Twins loaded the bases in the second inning, Gray escaped a one-out jam and his team rewarded the effort. Jordan Walker singled on a 1-2 changeup from López before he, too, was caught trying to nab second. But López erred again, this time throwing the ball into center field instead of recording the easy out.
López appeared to be in the process of escaping trouble before Nootbaar went below the zone on a 1-2 changeup and belted it for a two-run homer. The right-hander endured another inning of frustration in the third when St. Louis had a pair of slowly hit balls by Nolan Arenado and Iván Herrera find holes for singles, the latter driving in a run with two outs to make it 4-0.
Though López found a rhythm and the Twins offense eventually got going, the damage was done.
“Pablo will tell you he’s gotta execute those (pickoffs),” catcher Ryan Jeffers said. “Those changed the complexion of the entire game. I don’t think we feel sorry for ourselves or frustrated at all. … They’re a good team, but they’re built to get lucky. They don’t strike out.”
Gray struck out five through four innings before the Twins started to rally.
Jose Miranda singled with one out in the fifth inning and Harrison Bader — who got a hearty ovation from his former fan base — ripped a 2-2 slider for a two-run homer. The Twins got within a run in the sixth when Willi Castro doubled off reliever John King. Castro’s hit could have pulled the Twins ahead had it not been for the heroics of St. Louis center fielder Victor Scott II on the previous play, when he ran down a Ty France steamroller ticketed for the gap, making a tremendous running catch.
France, who singled in his first at-bat, had another potential double taken away by Scott to end the eighth inning.
“He hit three balls on the barrel,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He probably could have ended up with a couple of doubles out of it, but he looked great.”
Major League Baseball’s rollout of the Twins cable product wasn’t as smooth.
Negotiations expected to last until Wednesday evening took even longer than planned and were officially completed only seven hours before first pitch. Though MLB made it known a deal likely wouldn’t be finalized until late, not knowing where they could find the team’s games on their cable box had Twins fans feisty long before their club took the field in Missouri.
If that weren’t enough, the debut of Twins TV began with a three-minute Guardians hype video narrated by Bob Costas, a mistake made by someone in MLB’s master control office in Colorado. Accompanied by a widespread MLB.TV outage early in the day and fans across Twins Territory struggling with technical issues, too, the broadcast product’s first few innings were equally trying.
Between the team’s sloppy early play and the bumpy broadcast, nothing about Thursday’s start went the way the Twins desired.
With all the uncertainty surrounding the sale of the team and many fans wanting new ownership, and both the club and its fan base looking to shed the bad taste of last year’s collapse, the Twins are hoping for a pristine start to 2025.
But Thursday, it wasn’t meant to be.
“It was not a successful game,” López said. “There were definitely times when I could have executed better. … They’re big leaguers who had a good approach, and (Nootbar) hurt me when I was vulnerable.”
(Top photo of Pablo López: Joe Puetz / Getty Images)
