Weather forecasters warned the teams that storms were likely Monday afternoon in Port Charlotte, Fla. The Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays wanted to play anyway.
Play they did. The Twins and Rays even got two in — two innings, that is — before rain washed away the rest of the game.
Nice rainout, Falvey.
Did the Twins really go all that way (about an hour by bus from home base in Fort Myers), just to play two innings totaling about 33 minutes? Final score, such as it was: 1-1. No one wins, no one loses, nobody's even sure if the statistics count. It is Spring Training after all, and the stats barely count as it is.
It was televised, though, so it was a bummer for fans and others who tuned in expecting more.
A big waste, right? Hold your horses, said resident optimist Royce Lewis, who connected for a solo home run, the Twins first of the season in three Grapefruit League games. (Or, two games and one attempt.)
"It's not meaningless," Lewis told reporters, including Dan Hayes of The Athletic. "Every at-bat counts. I have a good approach right now, I'm going to keep sticking with that. Grow off of that."
Watch it fly:
Take that, Negative Nancys!
Further, he had family in town. And they got to see him dinger.
"It was awesome for me; my mom and sister were here," Lewis said. "Their last day here so I've got to take care of business before they leave."
The other notable business for the Twins: right-hander Chris Paddack, originally intending to throw a bullpen, pitched two innings. He allowed a solo home run to Danny Jansen in the first, but went 1-2-3 in the second with showers coming down in earnest.
It must have given manager Rocco Baldelli pause, with Byron Buxton battling the raindrops to catch the third out in center field. The last thing the Twins needed, or one of the last things, was some kind of injury to Buxton because he was playing on the road in Spring Training in a driving rain storm.
Oh: Paddack also struck out Josh Lowe in the first inning:
There wasn't much data available immediately because the stadium is not wired for MLB Statcast. It no longer houses a minor league team, so there was much less of a need.
Here is Jansen's deep fly:
With the rain splashing down, umpires huddled with Baldelli and Rays manager Kevin Cash and collectively decided, yeah, that was enough. Go get 'em tomorrow.
Speaking of which, the Twins return to Hammond Stadium at 12:05 p.m. CT on Tuesday to face the Yankees, with right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson scheduled to start.
It is supposed to be partly sunny and 77 degrees.