They opened the retractable roof on a rare occasion at Miami's tropical loanDepot Park — and it poured homers and runs in the Twins' 11-1 victory over the Marlins.
Undefeated after a three-game sweep to start the season at Kansas City, the Twins remained so Monday after they smacked four home runs, received more stingy starting pitching — this time from remade Tyler Mahle — and again ran the bases displaying the kind of baseball manager Rocco Baldelli calls "glorious."
They also won on a night when Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez and Twins starting pitcher Pablo López watched their former teams for the first time since a January trade swapped the 2022 American League batting champion for the Twins' starting pitcher on opening day.
The Twins now are 4-0 to start the season for the first time since 2017 and only the second time in 36 years.
Tampa Bay and Texas were the only other teams that entered Monday's game 3-0, like the Twins were.
The Twins also hadn't trailed yet this season, not after sweeping all three games at Kansas City.
The Twins didn't trail at all in Miami, either, after Max Kepler's 411-foot lead-off home run.
Joey Gallo followed with a three-run homer – his third in his last three at-bats going back to Sunday's 7-4 victory at Kansas City – in the second inning and Trevor Larnach's two-run homer in the seventh inning. Pinch hitter Ryan Jeffers hit another in the ninth against Marlins' catcher-turned-pitcher Jacob Stallings.
Gallo not only drove another pitch deep to right field, he also later sent an infield pop-up so high to got stuck in the retractable roof.
Miami starter Johnny Cueto left the game thereafter and was replaced by long reliever Jeff Lindgren, who was called up earlier Monday in case Cueto couldn't go long.
Kepler drove the game's fourth pitch deep over the head of right fielder Avisaíl García and over the right-center field wall, too, for a fast 1-0 lead.
It was his first hit of the season after he went 0-for-13 at Kansas City. It also was his 14th career lead-off homer.
Kepler lasted only three more innings, and by then the Twins already led 6-0. He came up limping after beating out an infield hit and left the game with what the team called right knee soreness.
Kyle Farmer replaced him as a pinch-runner and Baldelli moved Nick Gordon from second base to left field, moved Trevor Larnach from left to right field and Farmer stayed in the game at second.
Mahle started the season's fourth game after he made just four starts during an injury-riddled 2022 season.
He worked all offseason at a baseball performance center searching both a proper grip and mindset – and he came to spring training with all that, plus four pitches. Mahle returned with a fastball, splitter, cutter and primarily a slider.
"Hitters haven't seen it yet, so we'll see what they think," he told MLB.com recently.
The Marlins didn't nick him for a run until the fifth inning, when Arraez singled in a run that cut his team's deficit to 8-1.
Mahle left after that fifth inning having struck out seven and allowed one run on five hits. Jorge Alcala came on in relief. Twins starting pitchers now gone five innings at least and six at most.
"He's starting to feel better coming off last year," Baldelli told WCCO Radio's game broadcast. "Getting that confidence back is really important and that's what this spring training was all about. The slider will be a really important part of what he does this year."
