TORONTO — Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson insist that this weekend is business as usual as they square off against the organization that traded them as minor leaguers to Minnesota. But it’s also a full circle moment, of sorts, for the two rookies, who came over together in a deadline-day trade for starter José Berríos in 2021. These days, Berríos is thriving in Toronto — he has a 2.85 earned-run average and was recently named April’s American League Pitcher of the Month  — and Martin and Woods Richardson are establishing themselves as big leaguers. “We’re really driven and focus ..read more

Saints left fielder Matt Wallner continued his torrid hitting Thursday, but his solo home run accounted for all of St. Paul’s scoring in a 5-1 loss to the Mud Hens at Fifth Third Field in Toledo, Ohio. Wallner went 2 for 4 with that solo home run and is hitting .414 over his past seven games. He’s had five multi-hit games in that stretch and has hit four home runs. Louie Varland, who had allowed just one run in his first 12 innings with the Saints since being sent down from the Twins, allowed five runs on seven hits with three walks and eight strikeouts over 4 2/3 innings. Bligh Madris and Jus ..read more

Royce Lewis was spotted roaming the Twins’ clubhouse on Thursday afternoon at Target Field. He dapped up some of his teammates after the Twins put the finishing touches on a 11-1 win over the Seattle Mariners. He then said his goodbyes as they hit the road for a short series in Canada against the Toronto Blue Jays, while he stayed behind to continue rehab on a quadriceps strain he suffered on Opening Day. Though it looks like Lewis is getting closer to returning from the injured list, manager Rocco Baldelli made it clear the Twins will not rush the process. “He’s where he needs to be right now ..read more

If there was any doubt about whether the Twins were for real, they put those thoughts to rest with an impressive home stand. After getting the best of the Boston Red Sox in a series at Target Field last week, the Twins handled their business against the Seattle Mariners this week, finishing things off Thursday afternoon at Target Field with a dominant 11-1 victory. That result helped the Twins finish the home stand with a 5-2 record. They have now won 15 of their last 17 games to get themselves right back into the thick of the AL Central. The path to victory for the Twins on this particular da ..read more

When the Twins sent longtime infielder Jorge Polanco to Seattle for four players in January, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said it was a deal made for the future. Two of the players were prospects, outfielder Gabriel Garcia and pitcher Darren Bowen, and two were veterans the Twins were hoping would help Minnesota defend its American League Central title this season. Garcia, 20, and Bowen, 23, are playing productive innings with high-A Cedar Rapids right now, but the veterans — right-handers Justin Topa and Anthony DeSclafani — have yet to pitch an inning for the Twins, who star ..read more

Fifth Third Field has not been good to the St. Paul Saints over the years. The Twins’ Triple-A team came into Wednesday morning’s game with a .233 batting average in 33 games in Toledo, Ohio, the franchise’s lowest percentage of any International League ballpark. That changed, if only for a day, on Wednesday when the Saints set a franchise record for runs scored at Fifth Third Field and the second-most hits, 15, in an 11-6 victory over the Toledo Mud Hens on Wednesday morning. The Saints got contributions from everyone in the lineup as all nine players scored a run and reached base safely, sev ..read more

The Twins and Mariners traded blows for eight innings on Tuesday, combining for 19 hits that included a three-run homer by Ryan Jeffers and a pinch-hit grand slam from Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, to head to the ninth inning tied 6-6. The Mariners, however, didn’t stop there. Dylan Moore hit a leadoff triple off Jorge Alcala, the first of four consecutive Mariners batters to reach base in the ninth inning, as Seattle pulled away with four runs to beat the Twins, 10-6, in front of 14,710 at Target Field. Seattle evened the four-game series at a game apiece and pulled into a first-place tie with Texas ..read more

If Mitch Garver needs a reminder that he was part of major league history, he has the bobble head. Five relative likenesses of Twins players who, in 2019, became the first five major league teammates to hit at least 30 home runs in a season. “Yeah, I’ve got the bobblehead, I’ve got the pictures,” the veteran catcher/designated hitter said before Seattle and Minnesota played the second of a four-game series at Target Field on Tuesday. “It’s really cool. It seems like a long time ago.” And not necessarily because it was five years ago, or because Garver has now played for two other teams, and no ..read more

After going toe to toe with three-time all-star Luis Castillo on Monday, Twins rookie Simeon Woods Richardson faced a quick barrage of questions about pitching his best major-league game against one of Seattle’s best starters. The Twins’ right-hander handled the questions adeptly, but his handling of the inquiries couldn’t hold a candle to his performance on the mound in a 3-1 victory over Seattle in front of 14,384 at Target Field. In short, the reason Woods Richardson struck out a career-high eight in six scoreless innings was execution. How did he fan a major-league career high? “Just tryin ..read more

The Twins have a deeper pool of prospects than they did when Trevor Larnach was picked 20th overall in the 2018 amateur draft, so Minnesota fans can be forgiven for wondering if Larnach had missed his chance to find a permanent place on the big league roster. Larnach, in fact, acknowledges that he used to spend time looking around the organization at comparable players and wonder where he stacked up. Too much time. “I’d get caught up in who’s where, who’s doing what, how I’m doing — the whole comparison thing,” Larnach said. “But after going through a couple years of the business and the game ..read more