KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s not uncommon to look out in the hours before a game and see Twins’ players on the field manning their positions and taking grounders. It is uncommon to see it before an early afternoon game.
But that’s exactly what the Twins were doing a couple hours before Sunday’s game.
Minnesota was under .500 (34-35) in day games last year, far from their 53-40 record in night games. With a schedule heavy in day games to begin the season, the Twins are switching things up in an attempt to improve their daytime performance.
“Just waking ourselves up a little bit, getting outside, stretching as a team, playing catch, that’s a hell of a lot more than we’ve ever done before,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think the norm in our game is, obviously, for these day games, to take it easy, show up a little later, get going just before the game. We have a unique challenge in front of us because we play so many day games and we can’t just treat these games as a show-and-go type of situation.”
In its 69 day games last year, Minnesota hit .232 with a .314 on-base percentage and .390 slugging percentage (.704 OPS). Those numbers were up across the board at nighttime, when the Twins hit .252/.334/.455 with a .789 OPS as a team.
Minnesota’s 69 day games were fifth in the league last year. It’s scheduled for 66 daytime contests this year, starting with eight straight to begin the season. In March and April, the Twins will play 17 of them. While they might not do an extended pregame before every day game later in the season, it’s certainly an emphasis right now.
“We’re going to try to get outside as much as possible,” Baldelli said. “I think we’re going to be better if we are up and moving around. It’s not that difficult to get dressed and to just walk outside, stretch and play catch. A lot of our guys will probably just go out there, get loose, take some groundballs maybe, shag a little bit and come in.”
That’s what the Twins did on Sunday.
While they didn’t take batting practice on the field, players were out and moving around and Baldelli was preaching the effects of getting natural light in the morning, something which players wouldn’t have gotten much of with their past routines.
“We haven’t played great in day games,” Baldelli said, before the Twins were beat by the Royals 11-0 in a Sunday day game. “We’ve played a lot of really good baseball here. Less of that baseball has been played during day games, relatively speaking, so we’re trying to make an adjustment that we think has a chance to help us.”
Kepler still out
Max Kepler has not returned to the field since fouling a ball off his knee on Thursday, and while the Twins aren’t concerned longer term about his health, Baldelli said the right fielder was still was unable to run.
The hope, the manager said, is that after a day off on Monday, Kepler will be able to return to the field when the Twins face the Brewers on Tuesday.
“If he’s not able to play in Milwaukee, we’re going to have to talk about an IL stint of some kind. There’s just no way around that,” Baldelli said. “We’re not going to wait for six, seven, eight days when we could get another player here who can play and help us. I think he’s going to be OK. I hope he’s going to be improved.”
Briefly
The Twins have lined up Louie Varland and Chris Paddack to face the Brewers this upcoming week. That would mean ace Pablo López is lined up for the home opener at Target Field on Thursday.
