Minnesota Twins regular season baseball returns

The sprint to September for the Minnesota Twins starts Friday night when they face the Chicago White Sox inside Guaranteed Rate Field.

Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli is ready to go and thinks this team could be special. "I can't think of any team that I've been involved with ever, that's more talented than the group that we have this year.," Baldellis says. "I really can't. And the group last year is also like right there. I mean you can't have a more talented group than we're then we're able to put out there. We're very fortunate."

Baldelli did add, you win games on the field, not with expectations."You don't get anything by telling people you're good. Our guys know that it's actually a strength of our group is as talented as they are. They know what it takes to go out there and get the job done. And it starts by showing people and not just talking about it."

Tomorrow...-- #LaMaKina #MNTwins #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/wSetm39xfu

Following a 101-win season in 2019 and an American League Central title, the Twins enter the COVID-19 shortened season with higher expectations. The team is looking towards their off-season acquisitions including slugger third baseman Josh Donaldson, along with pitchers Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda, to boost an already strong roster.

For the second-straight season, Jose Berrioes will get the first start of the season. Last year, the now 26-year-old went 14-8 in 32 starts with a 3.68 earned run average, 195 strikeouts and just 51 walks in 200 innings. He'll be opposed by Lucas Gialito of the White Sox, who went 14- 9 with a 3.41 earned run average in 2019. 

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Coverage of opening night from Guaranteed Rate Field starts at 6:30 p.m. Friday on News Talk 830 WCCO and on FM via 102.9 The Wolf.