Major League Baseball’s third Field of Dreams Game arrives Thursday night with a matchup that carries real weight: the Philadelphia Phillies and Minnesota Twins will meet in the corn fields of Dyersville, Iowa.
The game is set for 7:30 p.m. ET and will stream on Netflix.
Aaron Nola is scheduled to start for the Phillies, while Taj Bradley gets the ball for the Twins. Caesars Sportsbook lists Philadelphia as a slight favorite at -115, with Minnesota at -105 and the over/under at 8.5.
The event takes its name from the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, the one starring Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and Amy Madigan. The MLB version is played on a major-league regulation field built amid the corn rows not far from the movie site in Dyersville.
The last one came in 2022, when the Cubs beat the Reds 4-2. The first, in 2021, delivered the kind of finish that made the whole concept stick: the White Sox came back from a 7-4 hole against the Yankees and won 9-8 on Tim Anderson’s walk-off homer.
This year’s game is not just a showcase. The Phillies enter at 64-58 and are tied with the Diamondbacks for the National League’s third and final wild-card spot. The Twins sit at 60-62, but they’re only a half-game behind the Rangers for the American League’s third wild-card spot and 3 ½ games back of the White Sox in the AL Central, where they are tied for second with the Tigers.
Thursday’s meeting opens a three-game series between the clubs. After the game in Iowa, both teams will have Friday off before wrapping up the series at Target Field in Minneapolis over the weekend.
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Mrquez comes in while still working back from Tommy John surgery and after a difficult stretch that led to his release by the San Diego Padres, making this a low-risk move with a potentially useful payoff. If he reaches the majors, the Twins would only owe him a prorated league minimum, which fits the kind of cautious pitching insurance teams often chase when the injury list keeps growing. [Read more 🡒]