It's pretty dreary outside right now, but all indications are that the Twins and Orioles will play tonight.

If you want to see Joe Mauer lead off in person - this will be the first time he's batted leadoff in a game - tonight might be the best chance for awhile. I spoke with president Dave St. Peter about the disappointment over calling last night's game - and how the weather might affect tomorrow's game.


Monday's game was postponed because of rain, and the forecast for Wednesday's series finale is not very promising, with rain expected to fall from midday into the evening. While the Twins have an off day on Thursday, Baltimore opens a four-game series against Detroit on Thursday.

The rained out game has been rescheduled for July 28. They hope that makeup date doesn't become a doubleheader.

``We have the belief and understanding that there is going to be rain (Wednesday)," Twins president Dave St. Peter said. ``I think it's generally our hope that it could impact the start time (but) there will be enough time for us to play tomorrow/tomorrow evening."

``We will be prepared to wait tomorrow for some time in order to try to get that game in. God forbid, if we don't get that game in there's a pretty good chance that July 28 would be turned into a split-day-night doubleheader."

Since this is Baltimore's only trip to Target Field this season, the Twins had more motivation to get Monday's game in. Another factor: The Orioles already have had four games rained out - two at home and two on the road - that have to be made up. But the weather pattern changed late Monday, forcing officials to call the game. Some fans have grumbled about how the Twins handled Monday, but the club's intentions were to play the game.

``Unfortunately the rain got here a little later than we anticipated and it went a little further east than we anticipated," St. Peter said. ``If we had to do it all over again, yeah. If we had known how it ended up playing out, we would have started on time and tried to get as much as that game in as possible before the rain came somewhere after 9 p.m."

If tomorrow's game is washed out, this becomes a one-game homestand, since the Twins head to Cleveland this weekend.


Orioles


Joey Rickard, LF
Manny Machado, SS
Adam Jones, CF
Chris Davis, 1B
Mark Trumbo, RF
Matt Wieters, C
Pedro Alvarez, DH
Jonathan Schoop, 2B
Ryan Flaherty, 3B

Kevin Gausman, RHP


Twins

Joe Mauer, 1B
Eduardo Nunez, SS
Brian Dozier, 2B
Trevor Plouffe, 3B
Miguel Sano, RF
Byung Ho Park, DH
Oswaldo Arcia, RF
Kurt Suzuki, C
Danny Santana, CF

Jose Berrios, RHP