UPDATED UPDATE: After about 75 minutes of waiting, much of it in bright sunshine, the storm came and went in about 15 minutes. The tarp is being rolled out, and players have begun to troop into the dugout. The Indians intend to conduct their Opening Day ceremony as planned, and have announced that first pitch should occur around 4:15 CDT. That's about two hours, 10 minutes after its schedule start time.
UPDATE: The Indians just put the weather radar on their scoreboard to illustrate for fans why, though it's not raining at the moment, the game will not start as scheduled at 2 p.m. CDT. There's another line of storms moving into the area, but it looks relatively clear once it passes. So the tarp is on the field, and we're awaiting the rain, in hopes of playing the game without interruption afterward. The team has made no guess yet about when the game will begin.
CLEVELAND -- Greetings from Progressive Field, where the rain that soaked Chicago yesterday has followed the Twins for another day. The grounds crew pulled the tarp off the field about an hour ago, but the rain has returned and the infield is covered once more. The forecast says the rain will return intermittently all day, but we expect to get the game in. It's the Indians' home opener, after all.
Talk in the clubhouse before the game was about Ron Gardenhire and his pursuit of 1,000 victories, which has taken longer than anticipated, to say the least. The Twins' 3-16 finish to 2013 stalled the manager at 998 wins, and the Twins took just one of three in Chicago to open the season. Gardenhire's wife Carol is on the trip to witness the milestone, and the manager joked before the game that she had no intention of coming to Cleveland. But here she is.
And here are the Twins, arriving on the same day the Indians announce they've locked up one of their cornerstone players, second baseman Jason Kipnis, with a six-year, $52.5 million contract. He'll bat third today for Cleveland, in front of new third baseman Carlos Santana, their converted catcher. Interestingly, the Indians are using their previous third baseman, Lonnie Chisenhall, as the designated hitter, batting ninth.
The Twins' DH is Chris Colabello, getting his first start against a right-handed pitcher, Danny Salazar. Colabello's six-RBI performance on Thursday moved him into second place in the American League in RBIs.
Here are the lineups for today's game, a schedule 2:05 p.m. (CDT) first pitch:
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Willingham LF
Colabello DH
Plouffe 3B
Arcia RF
Suzuki C
Hicks CF
Florimon SS
Pelfrey RHP
INDIANS
Morgan CF
Swisher 1B
Kipnis 2B
Santana 3B
Brantley LF
Cabrera SS
Murphy RF
Gomes C
Chisenhall DH
Salazar RHP