It's one of the surest signs that spring has truly arrived in Minnesota: the Twins' home opener.

The team will take to Target Field on Thursday, hoping for a win over the Houston Astros. First pitch is set for 3:10 p.m.

Before the aromas of baseball, beer and brats waft through downtown Minneapolis, let's take a look back at some history — the wins, losses, weather, notable events and more from home openers past.

On the field

Since the Twins' current home opened in 2010, they've played 15 home openers, going 8-7 in those games. Their biggest win was a 10-2 drubbing of the Seattle Mariners in 2021, while their biggest loss came in 2015 to the Kansas City Royals, 12-3.

They've played the Mariners more than any other team to open Target Field for the year — three times, going 2-1 in those games.

Cold weather starts

The Twins' home opener was delayed in both 2022 and 2023 due to lingering winter weather. 

In 2022, temperatures in the 30s caused the Twins to move the game from April 7. It worked out, with a high near 50 when they played a day later.

The next year, the high on April 6 — the original opener date — was just 38. They moved the game a day later, when winds were calmer and temperatures climbed just above 50 in the Twin Cities.

According to weather records, the coldest day that the Twins home opener happened at Target Field was one of the first the stadium saw, appropriately played on April Fools' Day in 2013, where the high temperature reached 36 degrees.

As cold as that was, there was a colder home opener in the books back when the Twins played at Metropolitan Stadium – on April 14, 1962, the high temperature stalled out at a bone-chilling 34 degrees.

Other notable happenings include pandemic delay, bald eagle cameo

The latest home opener in Twins history was in 2020, when COVID-19 shortened the MLB season and they didn't play ball at Target Field until July 28, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3. The earliest was in 2019, when they beat Cleveland 2-0 on March 28.

In 2018, ahead of a matchup with the Mariners, a bald eagle flying through Target Field as part of the pregame ceremony landed on Seattle pitcher James Paxton.

Facts and figures

The most-attended home opener happened in 2011, when 40,714 fans packed the stands. Excluding the COVID-affected years of 2020 and 2021 — when attendance was zero and 9,675, respectively — the lowest attendance came in 2023, when only 38,465 passed through the gates. Average attendance — we'll take out the COVID years again — is 38,554.

The Twins' shortest opener was 2019, when they beat Cleveland 2-0 in just two hours and 22 minutes. Their longest came in 2013, a 4-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers that took three hours and 28 minutes. A Target Field opener averages about two hours and 55 minutes.