Besides, the Twins were facing one of their favorite foils in a ballpark he hates. Luis Severino, who owns an 0-5 record and 6.99 ERA in the the California state capital, gave up both of the Twins’ bases-loaded hits, and six of the seven runs they drove in with two outs.
Somehow, he’s even worse against the Twins. In five career starts — including, memorably, the 2017 wild-card playoff game at Yankee Stadium in which he was removed after retiring only one batter — Severino has given up 21 runs in 17⅔ innings, a 10.70 ERA.
Severino gave up doubles to Carlos Correa, Buxton and Brooks Lee in the second inning, and nine hits overall, giving the Twins a terrific first impression of the ballpark, home to the Class AAA Sacramento River Cats. It allowed them to walk in triumph to their center-field clubhouse.
“There were a bunch of Twins fans in the stands over by our dugout, too. You win, and you’ve got people having full-on conversations with you from the third row and the eighth row and the 12th row,” Baldelli said of the announced crowd of 8,922, the second-smallest gathering of the season in Sacramento. “It was cool because it’s nice to have some support on the other side of the country.”
