The Minnesota Twins should take their early-season start, lock it away and hurl the safe off a cliff. Rocco Baldelli’s band looks to get right with a home hosting of the Houston Astros, who still draw passionate boos from road audiences across the league.
How to watch Houston Astros at Minnesota Twins
Viewing guide
H-Town finds itself at an interesting middle-point. The franchise has been just about dynastic during the past eight years, but by now, most of its championship core is either aging (Jose Altuve, Framber Valdez) or elsewhere (Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman). The acquisitions of Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes suggest Houston’s still trying to squeeze some juice here, but Texas’ reemergence and burgeoning Seattle make the AL West a tougher division.
The middle infield duo of Altuve and Carlos Correa defined the early iterations of that Astros squad. The former notched his seventh Silver Slugger for Houston in last year’s age-34 season; the latter earned All-Star honors for the first time as a Twin, hitting .310 with 14 homers in 86 games before plantar fasciitis shelved him in July.
Minnesota has struggled with injuries at large across the past few seasons. Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis have all missed significant action. The Twins need pop wherever they can get it right now, after hitting only two homers and scoring six total runs in their first four losses.
Bailey Ober had yet another blowup in his opening start. The White Sox, a futile team in 2024, absolutely rocked Chris Paddack. This series is an opportunity to get right … or dig deeper into the hole. For Houston, Hunter Brown and Ronel Blanco had strong finishes to 2024 but lost in their first starts this season.
Most wins in both uniforms
- Joe Niekro (144 HOU, 5 MIN)
- Dallas Keuchel (76 HOU, 2 MIN)
- Jim Deshaies (61 HOU, 17 MIN)
- Mark Portugal (52 HOU, 11 MIN)
- LaTroy Hawkins (44 MIN, 3 HOU)
Regular season wins odds
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(Photo of Jose Altuve: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
