Kyle Farmer has been activated and will play 2B in Game 1. Brooks Lee goes on IL (shoulder).

One correction: the strain is in Ryan’s teres major, a muscle in the shoulder, not his triceps.

At 106 pitches through 6 scoreless innings, Bailey Ober’s day appears over. But it’s his ninth consecutive quality start. And in his last 26 innings, Ober has allowed a mere 5 hits and 2 runs, a 0.69 ERA.

Here’s the patch the Twins are wearing today to commemorate the franchise’s “other” World Series title. Don’t think any ex-‘24 Senators will be here for it, though.

Not sure what the Guardians’ scouting reports say, but I doubt they recommend this location for a 94-mph fastball to Byron Buxton. His 15th HR traveled 378 feet, and it’s 1-0 Twins.

Game-tying solo shot moves José Ramírez into top 10 of HRs by Target Field visitors. 22 — Salvador Perez 17 — Edwin Encarnación 17 — Carlos Santana 16 — Miguel Cabrera 14 — José Abreu 14 — José Bautista 12 — Mike Moustakas 11 — Nelson Cruz 11 — Victor Martinez 11 — José Ramírez

Edouard Julien, Ronny Henriquez and Zebby Matthews are here in Texas, so roster moves appear evident: Buxton to IL, Varland to St Paul.

There is currently a mariachi band playing in the Twins clubhouse, in celebration of Christian Vázquez reaching 10 years of MLB service.

It’s Players Weekend, when players are allowed to break some of MLB’s uniform and equipment rules. Ryan Jeffers, for instance, plans to hit with this pencil bat, or perhaps a purple crayon.

Manuel Margot fouled off 10 pitches, eight in a row, before flying out on the 16th pitch to open the game. According to Stathead, it’s the longest at-bat in Margot’s 9-year career and Texas pitcher Andrew Heaney’s 11-year career.

That 16-pitch at-bat by Margot also ties Jorge Polanco (2021) and Kyle Farmer (2023) for longest by a Twin in Stathead’s database (pitch counts go back to the mid-80s). And it’s also the longest at-bat by the first batter of any game in the past 38 years or so, Stathead says.

The pencil bat just produced Ryan Jeffers’ team-leading 18th home run. Now everyone will want one …

Friday return “not out of the question” for Byron Buxton, Twins athletic trainer Nick Paparesta says.

Manuel Margot’s steal of 3B produces a run when Jose Miranda hits a sac fly. Wait, you can steal third? It seems so, though Margot is the only Twin to do so this year, twice now. Twins have as many steals of home as 3B. But the Rangers have stolen 3B only once. Reds: 32 times.

Grounds crew is pulling the tarp at Target Field, but Twins have not yet announced a resumption time for tonight’s game.

Game will resume at 8:40, Twins say, with Twins batting in the second inning and trailing 9-1.

Chris Sale's 6-inning, 6-whiff night moved him up some all-time Target Field leaderboards among visitors: IP 89.0 — Rick Porcello 83.1 — Justin Verlander 71.2 — Chris Sale 69.2 — Lucas Giolito 68.2 — James Shields K 94 — Verlander 85 — Sale 82 — Giolito 76 — Kluber 72 — Duffy

Not only have the Twins lost all 8 series vs NL teams since June 28 (Giants, Brewers, Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Padres, Cardinals, Braves), they have WON (plus one 2-2 tie) 8 straight series vs AL teams in that span. Stay in your lane, indeed.

OK, mea culpa: I forgot the Twins rallied for a walk-off win in the rubber game vs Phillies. So it’s five straight series lost to NL teams (4-11 in them) and seven of eight. And they are 9-0-1 in their last 10 series vs. AL teams.

Twins have lost their last four games in Kansas City by a combined score of 22-2, shut out in three of them.