CLEVELAND -- Almost all of the 21 losses the Twins have been dealt at Progressive Field over the past four years have been late-game heartbreakers.
Josh Naylor’s walk-off home run against Jharel Cotton in June 2022. Andrés Giménez’s walk-off single in September 2024 that helped push the Twins out of the postseason picture. Kyle Manzardo’s walk-off blast in April 2025 that came after a 3-hour, 10-minute rain delay.
While their 6-4 loss to the Guardians on Friday came without any walk-off drama, it was still a suboptimal performance for a Twins team that still has yet to break that hex which seemingly surrounds them anytime they step onto Progressive Field’s diamond.
For about five minutes in the top of the first inning, it looked like the Twins were going to play from in front. With a steady rain falling at first pitch, Byron Buxton led the game off with a ringing double to left field off Guardians starter Parker Messick that would have been a homer in 13 of 30 MLB parks.
The rain was falling and it seemed like momentum was wearing the Twins’ grey pinstriped uniform. But all that momentum quickly disappeared thanks to an Austin Martin groundout and back-to-back strikeouts from Ryan Jeffers and Josh Bell.
Things went from bad to worse in the bottom of the first inning when the Guardians tacked on four runs against starter Connor Prielipp.
After he opened the inning by giving up a single to Steven Kwan and a hit-by-pitch to Angel Martínez, Prielipp got superstar José Ramírez to hit what looked like a harmless grounder to second baseman Luke Keaschall.
But Martínez ran directly in front of Keaschall as he was going to field the ball, which contributed to the ball skipping past Keaschall’s glove and trickling into right field as Kwan scored.
Twins manager Derek Shelton tried to argue that Martínez had impeded on the play, but it stood as called after crew chief Quinn Wolcott got the umpires together to confer.
“The way the rule reads, not only does there not have to be contact, but if you hinder or impede,” Shelton said. “In my opinion, it was hindering and impeding. I asked them to get together and none of them had the rule. And it ended up costing us runs.”
The Guardians tacked on three more runs after that on a Rhys Hoskins sacrifice fly and two-run home run from Travis Bazzana, the first of his big league career.
Luckily for the Twins, Prielipp followed that inning with a great four-inning stretch that may be the best he’s pitched in his brief MLB career.
He allowed just four baserunners across those four innings and racked up all six of his strikeouts.
“It wasn't my cleanest inning of all time, but the team needed me and I was able to buckle down and get through five,” Prielipp said.
In total, he threw a career-high 93 pitches, which is a clear step in the right direction given the fact he’s undergone Tommy John surgery twice and hasn’t thrown more than 82 2/3 innings in any season of affiliated ball.
Minnesota is going to be monitoring Prielipp’s workload all season, but his outing Friday showed how dangerous he can still be.
“This is just being mindful of the player, because we really like him and believe in him,” Shelton said pregame. “We have to be thoughtful that way. He will be monitored very closely and I’ll presume it will happen for the foreseeable future.”
While the Twins were able to scratch four runs across late, they always seemed to be missing the big, game-breaking hit.
The top of the sixth inning was perhaps the perfect embodiment of that, as they scored one run but had a rally cut short when Guardians center fielder Petey Halpin threw out Jeffers at home on a single by Keaschall.
“That’s got to be a perfect throw,” Shelton said. “He got a good hop and a good skip off the grass.”
While Jeffers acknowledged postgame that there have been “a lot of bright spots” in the way the Twins have played lately, he also realizes that they still have a lot of growing up to do if they want to turn Progressive Field into their playground.
“No one’s oblivious to the fact we’ve got to continue to get better and continue to work,” he said. “We’ve got to keep going out there for early work and work on our craft and become better baseball players.”