MINNEAPOLIS -- The Twins did, indeed, bring out the "bells and whistles" of a more normal stadium experience for their intrasquad game on Thursday, but things still felt abnormal all the same, as the loud walk-up music for each batter and announcements from the public address announcer were surrounded by periods of eerie silence around the ballpark.

Players are likely going to have to get used to that sort of environment this season and find ways to focus despite the lack of crowd noise and natural ambiance -- an environment many of them haven't seen since rookie ball. Thursday's proceedings offered a good test of that, and starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi no longer needs to worry whether it will make for a tough adjustment.

"I was pretty locked in to game mode right there," Odorizzi said. "It's a good test to be able to flip the switch when nobody's in the stands and see if you can do it. I think I proved to myself today that I'll have no problem pitching this year."

The environment on Thursday was only the first test of the Twins' experiment to prepare their players for the atmosphere of the unique 2020 regular season, but with no existing precedent for these times, they will continue tinkering with ideas like ambient crowd noise to help their players lock in.

In Odorizzi's case, he also treated Thursday as a normal start day, including not talking with any of his position-player teammates in the hours leading up to the game. Once the adrenaline kicked in on the mound, aided by the music and sound effects, Odorizzi said that his velocity was even higher than it was for much of last season.

"I think there's certainly something about the in-game experience -- the fans, the noises, the smells, the action kind of all around you -- that I think allows some people to focus even better and probably does raise the adrenaline level in some way," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "I think that's real."

To nobody's surprise, Sergio Romo did all he could to make up for the lack of fans in the stands, as he stomped around the bullpens in left-center field while screaming at the top of his lungs throughout the contest. Odorizzi was able to tune out Romo's antics while on the mound, but center fielder Max Kepler seemed to derive a good amount of enjoyment from listening to the veteran reliever's relentless chatter.

"Sergio, all by himself, is an in-game experience," Baldelli said. "He was out there. We could hear him from the dugouts doing a number of things. I think he was rooting for his teammates. I think he was having a good time. I think he was testing the acoustics in the building in a lot of ways, and it helped."

Twins announce 2021 regular-season schedule
Even though the Twins haven't yet started digging into their 2020 season, fans already have the chance to look ahead to the potential of a full 162-game season in 2021, as laid out in the schedule released by the club on Thursday afternoon.

Opening Day 2021 is scheduled for April 1 in Milwaukee, marking the first time the Twins will begin a season with Interleague Play. The home opener will follow a week later, on April 8, against the Mariners. The Twins will finish the regular season on the road in Kansas City on Oct. 3.

In addition to the customary 19 games against each American League Central opponent, the Twins will face teams from the National League Central in Interleague Play, featuring home series against the Brewers, Pirates, Reds and Cubs and road series against the Brewers, Cardinals, Reds and Cubs.

Among the highlights of the planned schedule, the Twins will first face the Indians at Progressive Field from April 26-28, but they won't host Cleveland at Target Field until a four-game series from June 24-27. A six-game homestand in early June will feature series against both the Yankees and Astros, and August 2021 is shaping up to be particularly tough due to scheduled games against the Astros, Indians, Yankees and Brewers.

• Complete 2021 Twins schedule

Donaldson goes deep; Buxton battles Odorizzi
On Wednesday, Twins pitching unquestionably won the day during the club's first intrasquad game. One day later, Josh Donaldson loudly put an end to that.

Donaldson smacked an 0-1 offering from rookie left-hander Lewis Thorpe over the right-field wall, snapping a scoreless tie in the bottom of the second inning. There wasn't a bat flip involved, but Donaldson showed plenty of enthusiasm, pumping his arms as he rounded the bases and jokingly dancing in front of catcher Alex Avila as he crossed home plate.

"I’ve seen that swing before," Baldelli said. "I’ve seen that ball go out of several Major League ballparks in that exact same manner. He has the ability to hit the ball out to all parts of the ballpark. Like I said, vintage Donaldson."

The other standout performance from Thursday's scrimmage came courtesy of Byron Buxton, who battled Odorizzi in a 13-pitch plate appearance that the Twins actually cut short without a conclusion following 11 foul balls hit by Buxton, which ballooned Odorizzi's pitch count to 73 in just under four innings. Despite only having arrived in camp on Tuesday due to the birth of his second son, Buxton has already turned heads with a pair of doubles and strong at-bats during his intrasquad games.

"Buck looks great physically," Baldelli said. "He came in swinging the bat great. I was not the only one talking about him today in the dugout, believe me. Players and staff were commenting that he’s having tremendous at-bats. On top of hitting the ball well, and obviously he’s running well, we had to yell at him to take it easy going down the line and things like that."

Duffey building up to season more slowly
Most of the Twins' projected 2020 bullpen has already pitched twice in live batting practice or intrasquad settings during Summer Camp, but Tyler Duffey has not yet been on the mound in such settings despite having been spotted around the ballpark. Baldelli said Thursday that Duffey is completely healthy but is just slightly behind other pitchers in his ramp-up to the season.

"Duff, just due to every guy being in a different spot, probably just going to be a hair behind as we build him up," Baldelli said. "We’re just building him up right now before we get him out there facing hitters."

Twins tidbits
• Miguel Sanó and Willians Astudillo remain in quarantine following their positive tests for COVID-19 during the intake protocol to Summer Camp and were tested again on Thursday. At Sanó's location, he is able to go outside by himself and swing off a tee into a net while he quarantines, Baldelli said.

"He’s doing most of the stuff that he can so when he’s cleared to play, he’ll be more likely to be ready or close to being ready," said Nelson Cruz, who speaks to Sanó every day.

• Top prospects Ryan Jeffers (No. 6 in the Twins' organization, per MLB Pipeline) and Brent Rooker (No. 12) participated in Thursday's activities on the field. Rooker has not been part of the main workout group in Minneapolis but saw defensive action at both first base and right field during the scrimmage. Jeffers caught some of the postgame live batting-practice sessions and also took several at-bats.

Quotable
"I just ate and played video games a lot. That was about it. No, I guess I ate a little healthier than I normally do. I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but I didn’t even notice it until you guys started talking about it. I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I did.’ But I feel good, I feel strong and other than that, I’m ready to go. So yeah, if I had any advice, it’d just be to eat and play video games and you’ll lose weight." -- a noticeably slimmer Randy Dobnak, on his weight loss tips