ST. PAUL -- Traveling back to Minnesota after spending nearly a month surrounded by the Florida sunshine and heat provided a shock to the system for Byron Buxton and his Twins teammates. One for which many of them, apparently, were not prepared.
“It didn’t really hit anybody until yesterday. We got on the bus to go play Boston (in Fort Myers) and (Miguel) Sanó said he didn’t have a jacket,” Buxton said. “And that’s when everybody was like, ‘You know what, we don’t have a jacket either.’ ”
That same weather has forced the postponement of the Twins’ scheduled Opening Day game against the Seattle Mariners, which was pushed back from Thursday to Friday at 3:10 p.m at Target Field.
Thursday’s forecast called for chilly temperatures combined with a mixture of rain and snow, prompting the Twins to make the decision more than 24 hours in advance to push their season opener back.
It is the first weather postponement of Opening Day in Target Field’s history — and the second postponement of the Twins’ 2022 opener. The Twins originally were scheduled to begin the season on March 31 in Chicago, but that series and the following series against the Cleveland Guardians were postponed previously as a result of the lockout. The Twins will make up those games later in the season.
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As for Friday’s Opening Day, all surrounding activities, beginning with Breakfast on the Plaza at 6 a.m., will occur on the same timeline as originally scheduled, just one day later. The gates to the ballpark will open at 1 p.m., more than two hours ahead of the scheduled first pitch.
Fans with tickets to Thursday’s game can use them for admission on Friday. Exchanges are also available for fans who can no longer attend, but must be made at least 24 hours before Friday’s game. Tickets sold by a secondary reseller, like StubHub, can only be used for Friday’s game.
The Twins arrived in town Tuesday night after concluding spring training and partook in a Wednesday workout at Target Field. The extra day, manager Rocco Baldelli said, might actually be advantageous.
“There’s always a lot going on going into Opening Day and everyone ultimately gets ready to play, but the extra day allows us to settle in a little bit for guys that haven’t been here before,” Baldelli said. “It allows us to get a couple of days of work in. It allows our pitchers to touch the mound a little bit. We’re going to get on the field (Wednesday) and do as much as we can on the field in case we can’t do anything (Thursday).”
