Twins game postponed a day due to weather
The Minnesota Twins pre-emptively postponed their Monday night game against the Miami Marlins at Target Field, due to approaching inclement weather.
The Twins announced almost seven hours before the scheduled start time Monday that they'll play the Marlins instead on Tuesday night as the second half of a split doubleheader. The two teams already were slated to play on Tuesday afternoon. This is only a two-game series.
To give workers more time to prepare the ballpark, the Twins also pushed the first game back an hour to 1:10 p.m. local time. The second game will be at 7:10 p.m.
Monday's game was called while the temperature was 45 degrees, before any rain had even fallen. But the forecast was calling for a wet night, turning to heavy snow that's supposed to taper by Tuesday morning after an estimated accumulation of three to six inches in the Twin Cities area. The expected high for Tuesday was 42 degrees.
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Four of Minnesota's last eight scheduled games have been wiped out before they began because of weather problems, including three at home. That matched their previous season high for postponements at Target Field, in 2011. The Twins had only one washout in 2012 and one in 2010, plus a game that was suspended in that inaugural year for the ballpark.
Thanks in part to all the wintry weather plus one scheduled off day last week, the Twins haven't lost in nine days since April 13. Their winning streak is at four games in a row, good enough to propel them into second place in the AL Central division. They were planning to send right-hander Kevin Correia to the mound on Monday, with right-hander Mike Pelfrey scheduled to pitch on Tuesday.
The Marlins (4-15) have the fewest wins and the worst record in the majors, a low not unexpected after their offseason sell-off that sent away most of their best players to save money and start over with a young team and new manager Mike Redmond.
According to STATS research, this is their worst mark after 19 games. They were 5-14 in 1995, 1998 and 1999.
The Marlins are batting .212 with six home runs and 43 runs scored, all by far the fewest totals in the majors. Giancarlo Stanton, the only star who wasn't traded, is hitting .188 with one run batted in.
Right-hander Ricky Nolasco was the scheduled starter for Monday. Right-hander Jose Hernandez was slated to take the mound on Tuesday.
Redmond was forced to wait for his reunion with the Twins, for whom he was a popular backup catcher from 2005-09. The Marlins also have a pair of former Twins pitchers, Jon Rauch and Kevin Slowey.
