Due to our winter-like weather for the next two days, the Twins have decided to push their home opener against the Astros to Friday afternoon, where temperatures will be more baseball-like.
That'll suit new pitcher Pablo Lopez who told WCCO’s Sports Huddle with Dave Schwartz and Pete Najarian that he's still getting used to his new climate here in the Upper Midwest. In fact, he’s discovered something new to keep his fingers toasty. You might be familiar with them already.
“There’s something called hand warmers,” Lopez said. “You shake something and it makes your hand warmer or something? I’ve only seen it here. I’m sure I’m going to learn about a lot of things I didn’t know I needed in my baseball career.”
The 27-year old Venezuelan played in Florida before being traded to the Twins in the Luis Arraez deal.
Of course Twins fans will have to wait one more day before seeing their team at Target Field. The home opener, originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon, has been pushed back to Friday due to the weather forecast which feels a bit more like football weather.
Lopez says he thinks he's ready for Minnesota weather, after spending this past weekend playing the Royals.
“I was a little scared coming to Kansas City, but I found that the weather wasn’t too bad,” says Lopez. “I told myself ‘this isn’t too bad’. Then someone told me, yeah, but it’s 20 degrees colder in Minnesota than it is here. And I was like, oh well, that’s something.”
The Marlins and Twins are coming off an incredibly fast game, a 1-0 victory for Miami that was played in just one hour and 57 minutes, the fastest of the season so far. And that's in a season where games are already being played at a much faster pace thanks to some new rules and a pitch clock.
Last year, the first five Twins games averaged three hours and 15 minutes. So far this season, that number is two hours and 23 minutes. Across all of baseball, games have been shortened by around 30 minutes so far.
The Twins wrap up a series with the Marlins Wednesday afternoon. Pregame from Miami at 11:30 on WCCO Radio and the Audacy app.
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