Tag: Minnesota Twins

A stormy red sky and a rainbow created a truly incredible scene above Twins’ Target Field

This looked like something out of a movie.

The late summer storms in Minneapolis during Monday night’s Minnesota Twins game against the Atlanta Braves gave us one of the coolest scenes of the baseball season.

The stormy sky above Target Field was dark red, adorned with a rainbow and purple lightning in the sky. It genuinely looked like something out of a movie.

The Twins’ Twitter (X) account shared an absolutely mind-boggling image of the complete rainbow over the field with streaks of purple lightning all around it. It’s just an absolutely surreal scene.

If your jaw is on the floor, don’t worry. This is absolutely one of the coolest things we’ve seen all season in the MLB (or really, in nature this year).

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Twins catcher Christian Vazquez showed a ridiculously outside target against Javy Báez and of course it worked

He swings at EVERYTHING.

For the money, there isn’t really a worse hitter than Tigers shortstop Javy Báez. He ranks near (or at) the bottom in virtually every hitting metric this season, and his abysmal plate discipline makes for an easy matchup whenever a pitcher gets Báez in a two-strike count.

Twins catcher Christian Vazquez really took advantage of that on Sunday.

With Báez down 0-2 in the sixth inning against Minnesota, Vazquez set up his target for pitcher Bailey Ober well into the left-hand batter’s box. For almost every other hitter, you’d never see a target like that. It’s a waste pitch, after all. But there really aren’t waste pitches when Báez is at the plate.

Vazquez knew that Báez was swinging, so it didn’t make much sense to even have the pitch go anywhere near the zone. So, of course, that target worked as Báez swung and missed for strike 3.

He’s hitting .178 on the season for a reason.

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A camera caught Twins pitcher Joe Ryan pouring powder down his pants

Sometimes, you need to dry things off.

It’s hot in many parts of the country, so there’s no guilt or shame here.

That said, it’s just too funny that the camera captured the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox game on Monday lingered on Carlos Correa after the infielder hit a dinger. But it’s not Correa we’re focused on.

No, it’s pitcher Joe Ryan who greeted Correa … and then poured a bunch of powder down his pants.

Hey, like I said! It was probably a muggy night and Ryan might have needed some relief despite the fact that he wasn’t on the mound that night.

Here you go:

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Joey Loperfido made the MLB catch of the year and it’s not even close

UNREAL!!!

It’s ok if you don’t know who Joey Loperfido is. I watch plenty of baseball and wasn’t too familiar with him, either.

I absolutely know his name now. The 25-year-old rookie had played just 24 games in The Show heading into Friday’s contest at Target Field against the Minnesota Twins when he made the catch of his life and left baseball fans breathless.

In fact, it’s pretty safe to say this is the catch of the year — especially after the Astros hung on for a much-needed 13-12 victory as they try to catch the first-place Seattle Mariners in the American League West.

Ok, enough talk. Just watch this.

In and out of the glove and caught in Loperfido’s bare hand as he’s falling down at the wall. That is just such a mind-blowing effort.

Granted, the stakes are completely different, but the play brings to mind the catch DeWayne Wise made to preserve Mark Buerhle’s perfect game in 2009.

That’s exactly the type of effort play that keeps a rookie on the roster much longer than expected. Credit to Loperfido for making a catch we’ll be talking about for at least the rest of the season.

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Former Blue Devil Joey Loperfido dazzles with potential MLB catch of the year

Former Blue Devil Joey Loperfido made the potential catch of the year against the Minnesota Twins on Friday.

The Houston Astros did not draft former Duke Blue Devil [autotag]Joey Loperfido[/autotag] for his defensive prowess. Still, during a crazy 13-12 win over the Minnesota Twins on Friday night, Loperfido made a phenomenal catch that will be on highlight reels for the foreseeable future.

Minnesota’s Willi Castro barrelled up a 0-1 pitch and drove it deep to right field at Target Field. Loperfido ranged to his left, inching closer to the right field fence before he leaped and snagged the baseball into his glove.

The ball fell out on the way down, but Lopefido used his non-glove hand to catch it before it hit the ground, preventing what would have been a sure extra-base hit.

Initially, it was ruled no-catch, but after an Astros review, it was determined that the ball never hit the wall once it left Loperfido’s glove, thus making it fair play for the Duke grad to secure it for the final time.

Loperfido has had a lot of runway to play with the Astros’ missing two-time All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker with a shin injury. Tucker is believed to be out through the All-Star break, meaning Loperfido will have even more opportunities to showcase himself.

Along with his terrific catch last night, he also had a two-run double that helped Houston’s cause as they continue to play much better baseball and look to fight their way into the AL West race.

Willi Castro got bizarrely tripped up by his own batting helmet

You don’t see this every day.

Batting helmets save a lot of lives, especially from pitches that can be dialed up to triple-digits.

On rare occasions, when they fall off, they can bend the laws of physics, and in this one, a helmet tripped up the player who was wearing it.

Minnesota Twins utility man Willi Castro was rounding first and maybe heading for second when his batting helmet fell off, dropped directly below his back and nailed him in the heel. That led to Castro tripping and getting back to first quickly.

Just wild. Check out that weird moment from Wednesday night’s Twins win over the Rays:

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J.J. McCarthy’s bad first pitch at a Twins game might concern Vikings fans a little

Not great, J.J. McCarthy!

OK, look, one first pitch at a baseball game should not make you worried about a quarterback’s skills, right?

But if you’re a Minnesota Vikings fan, this has got to concern you just a little, right?

Rookie QB J.J. McCarthy stepped on to the mound at Tuesday’s Minnesota Twins game against the Tampa Bay Rays and tossed the ceremonial first pitch very much outside of its intended target, all the way to the backstop.

To be fair, he is not a pitcher. But given that he throws things for a living, you might be nervous if you’re a Vikings fan, right?

 

Snoop Dogg reacting to a great Elly De La Cruz play from the broadcast booth of Reds-Twins was absolutely delightful

So much drama in the EDLC.

We don’t really need to understand why Snoop Dogg was in the broadcast booth for Saturday’s Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins game. We’re just glad that it happened.

His appearance on the game broadcast was absolutely wonderful, particularly the way he reacted to Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz throwing out a Twins runner before he got to first base.

Snoop Dogg did not think that De La Cruz could make the play on Minnesota’s Brice Turang after the latter got a nice hit down the middle of the field.

However, De La Cruz has made a career so far out of making incredible highlights seem easy. Of course he threw Turang out with ease.

Snoop Dogg couldn’t believe it, which made his commentary all the more fantastic.

The world needs Snoop Dogg in the booth for more sports broadcasts of all types, as this surprise MLB guest appearance was just too good to miss.

We wouldn’t blame him for buying a De La Cruz jersey after this, either.

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The Minnesota Twins debuted a Prince themed home run celebration and it’s so good

This is so cool!

The Minnesota Twins aren’t the first team from the Twin Cities area to honor late musician Prince and they certainly won’t be the last.

On Thursday, during the Twins home game against the Oakland Athletics, Carlos Correa gave Minnesota a 6-2 lead in the seventh inning after a two-run home run. The Twins already had the Athletics well in hand, but Correa’s long shot helped put the final nail in the coffin for this game.

And as Correa was trotting around the base paths, Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” started playing in Target Field. Not only that, when Correa got back to the dugout, his teammates adorned him with a purple jacket and hat in full Prince and Minnesota style.

Definitely one of the coolest Prince tributes we’ve seen in sports, that’s for sure!

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No, that wasn’t snow falling at a Twins game. It was a ton of cottonwood seeds

That’s not snow!

If you saw white stuff falling from the skies during Tuesday’s Kansas City Royals game at Target Field in Minnesota, you might have assumed it was snow, because the Land of 10,000 Lakes tends to get the cold, powdery stuff a lot.

But nope! It was cottonwood seeds falling from the sky, and the Twins’ broadcast perfectly captured the shot that had everyone on X (formerly Twitter) talking about how wild that is and how if you were allergic to cottonwood, this might make your allergies act up just by looking at it.

Here’s the amazing shot everyone was talking about:

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