MINNEAPOLIS -- Mother Nature defeated the Minnesota Twins for the second time this season as rain and wind forced the Twins to postpone Sunday's game against the Detroit Tigers at Target Field. The date of the makeup game will be announced at a later date.
The Twins and Tigers were scheduled to play their third and final game of the series at 1:10 p.m. CT. Kyle Gibson was set to take the mound for Minnesota, while Detroit ace Justin Verlander was due to pitch for the Tigers. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said Gibson will now start Tuesday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the rest of the rotation will remain intact.
"It sounds like there was maybe going to be a little bit of an opening, but it's not very much of one, and it's pretty much going to be ugly all day," Gardenhire said of the weather. "It would be really ugly out, and tomorrow's not an option either."
It marks the second postponement this season at Target Field. Minnesota's game on April 16 against Toronto was also postponed due to low temperatures and snow. That game was made up as part of a day-night doubleheader on April 17. In total, there have been nine postponed games in Target Field history since the park opened in 2010.
Detroit comes back to Minneapolis two more times. The first is a three-game series Aug. 22-24, and again for a three-game series from Sept. 15-17.
The Twins have a day off Monday before hosting the Dodgers for a three-game series beginning Tuesday. The weather forecasts for the upcoming week don't look much more promising than Sunday, as rain is expected all week. But this is the only trip the Dodgers make to Minnesota this year, which could complicate things in terms of postponements and rescheduling.
"That's kind of one of the things we talked about with this game today, too. If we try to play today and we soak this field down, then Monday it's going to be raining all day again and then it's going to be like that the rest of the week," Gardenhire said. "You're going to deal with a screwed up field all week, because there's going to be probably off and on rain. It's going to be entertaining. We're going to have to play. The Dodgers don't come here again, so we're going to have to play them."
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