There was a time several years ago when the Minnesota Twins dominated interleague play against National League opponents.
Back in 2008, the Twins went 14-4 in 18 games against the NL, including a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres, Tuesday's opponent. Since that season, though, Minnesota's success in interleague play has diminished.
During an 87-win season in 2009, the Twins took 12 of 18 games against the NL. One year later, despite winning 94 games overall, Minnesota struggled in interleague play, going just 8-10. The Twins' best interleague success in the last few years was a 9-9 record versus National League teams. Last year, Minnesota was 8-12 in interleague.
The Twins have already played their first interleague series of 2014, and it didn't end well for Minnesota. The visiting Los Angeles Dodgers swept a three-game series at Target Field, just one of two times the Twins have been swept so far this year.
With two games in San Diego on Tuesday and Wednesday and a three-game weekend series at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Minnesota has a chance to improve its recent struggles against National League foes. This week's series against the Padres marks the first time the Twins have played at Petco Park since that three-game sweep in 2008.
During that series, Minnesota used an improbable combination of back-to-back home runs to win the first game. Brendan Harris and Brian Buscher hit consecutive homers against Padres closer Trevor Hoffman to give the Twins a 3-1 lead, which was enough for the victory.
The following day, Minnesota won 9-3 against Hall of Famer Greg Maddux to win the series and closed out the sweep one game later with a 4-3 victory. Only three players from that 2008 team remain on the Twins' roster.
The last time these two teams played was 2011, when the Padres visited Target Field for the first time since the park opened one year earlier. Just like it did in San Diego, Minnesota swept that three-game series. This will be just the fifth meeting of these clubs; the Twins own a 9-3 overall record against the Padres, including six straight wins.
Correia returns home: Twins right-hander Kevin Correia will take the mound to start Tuesday's series opener at Petco Park. It's a stadium he knows fairly well, having spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons with the Padres.
After playing for the San Francisco Giants for six years, Correia signed with the Padres as a free agent before the 2009 season. He went 12-11 with a 3.91 ERA in 33 starts in 2009, and followed that up by going 10-10 and posting a 5.40 ERA in 2010 before joining the Pittsburgh Pirates the following season.
Correia is also going home with the trip to San Diego. He attended high school in La Mesa, Calif., a suburb 15 minutes northeast of San Diego. In fact, Correia is one of three starters in the Twins' rotation who are California natives heading to his home state on this road trip, along with Phil Hughes (Santa Ana, Calif) and Ricky Nolasco (Rialto, Calif).
Tuesday's start will be the 47th time Correia has pitched at Petco Park, the second-most of any major league stadium after AT&T Park (82 games). He has a career 10-14 record with a 4.42 ERA in 46 games at Petco Park.
Willingham continues rehab in Rochester: Twins outfielder Josh Willingham remains on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Rochester as he works his way back from a hand injury after getting hit by a pitch in early April.
Willingham was the designated hitter Tuesday for the Red Wings and went 0-for-4 in a 3-0 loss to Toledo. He is now just 2-for-16 (.125) in five games with Rochester on his rehab assignment. It remains to be seen when he will be ready to be activated from the 15-day disabled list, but the Twins have made it clear that they want him to feel comfortable at the plate after not having played since April 6.
During his time in the minors, Willingham has done something that many major leaguers have done before him -- buy dinner for his new teammates.
According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Willingham opened up his wallet to buy dinner for the Red Wings from Outback Steakhouse. Twins right-hander Mike Pelfrey, who is also in Rochester for a rehab assignment, made a similar gesture by buying Dinosaur BBQ a few days earlier.
Pelfrey has made one start so far as he works his way back from a groin injury. He allowed one run on five hits in five innings of work against Columbus on Friday.
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