3-run first jump-starts Twins’ win over Angels
Minnesota’s Richardson pitched into the sixth for a 5-1 victory over Los Angeles.
By Betsy Helfand, Pioneer Press – April 26, 2025
In the early going of the 2025 season, the Twins have had a particularly challenging time against lefties. They seemed to have no such problem with Los Angeles starter Yusei Kikuchi on the mound on Saturday.
Four straight hits off Kikuchi began the bottom of first inning. By the time it was all said and done, the Twins had collected six hits and scored three runs in the inning. They never looked back, chasing Kikuchi early in their 5-1 win over the Angels on Saturday afternoon at Target Field.
“I can’t say enough good things about the lineup, up and down,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You look, really, from top to bottom and the guys brought it. The bats were awake from the very start of this game.”
Kikicuhi lasted just two-plus innings, at which point he had given up four runs. The Angels (12-14) starter had flirted with much worse disaster. Nine hits and four walks meant the Twins (11-16) were clogging the bases early in Saturday’s game.
Carlos Correa, who historically has hit Kikuchi well, had a pair of RBI singles in his first two at-bats, a positive sign for the shortstop, who has had a difficult start to his season. A handful of other Twins also had a pair of hits, including Jonah Bride, Ty France and Brooks Lee, each of whom drove in a run.
“We were just trying to get a good pitch to hit,” Correa said. “I think the whole lineup was in on the approach, and good things happen when everybody is on the same page.”
In each of the first three innings, the Twins stranded the bases loaded. Through four, they had left 11 on, threatening to break the game wide open early.
Though they never quite did, they had a healthy enough lead for starter Simeon Woods Richardson and their bullpen, which turned in 3⅔ scoreless innings.
“It’s any pitcher’s dream,” Woods Richardson said of the run support. “And the days that they’re not there, it’s the days that we have to rely on each other and we make great team outings. But when it’s like this, it just makes our job so much easier.”
Woods Richardson pitched into the sixth inning, allowing just one run on a Zach Neto home run in the third inning off an 82.8-mph slider. Neto finished with three of the Angels’ five hits. At one point during his outing, Woods Richardson struck out four straight batters on his way to seven total.
Ten of his 12 swing-and-misses came on the four-seam fastball, which Woods Richardson said had felt good in in the bullpen pregame and during the week.
“He was sharp,” Baldelli said. “He had some really good life on that pitch.”
With the win, the Twins, have now won two consecutive series — they took two of three against the Chicago White Sox earlier in the week — and will go for the sweep on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s a confidence-booster, for sure, and we’ve got to keep going,” Correa said. “We dug ourselves a hole at the beginning of the season where we weren’t playing good baseball. We lost a lot of close games. But now we’ve got to use this as fuel, keep moving forward and keep playing great baseball.”
PHOTO: Minnesota Twins’s Byron Buxton gestures after hitting a single off Los Angeles Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi during the first inning of a baseball game, Saturday, April 26, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig