MLB's future can't include both 7-inning games and split doubleheaders

The Twins played the 9,500^th game, including postseason, in their Minnesota history on Saturday afternoon and it was the first scheduled for seven innings.

The game started at 12:35 p.m., 6 ½ innings were played as the Twins won, 4-2, and the time of game was 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Considering Jake Odorizzi cruised through the first four innings as the Twins starter, this served as an example of the dawdling pace of major league baseball that has its critics – and perhaps its commissioner – convinced that seven innings is the way to go with future doubleheaders.

There was a long period when the affiliated minor leagues would play a 9-inning game followed by a seven for its doubleheaders. And then it switched to the current 7-inning games -- current if the affiliated minors actually had started and were operating this summer.

Why not also make two "sevens'' the modus operandi in the major leagues beyond as a pandemic emergency? Why not make it permanent?

The quick answer is that seven-inning games defile the traditions of what has been America's most-traditional game. That wouldn't be a winning argument with Commissioner Rob Manfred and his advisers; it might not even be that with most owners.

There is an economic reason, though, that will resonate with owners: a fondness for split doubleheaders, allowing their teams not to lose home gates.

The Twins proved that on Friday night. Taking into account the optimism that preceded this season, in normal conditions there would have been 30,000-plus customers heading into Target Field, the thunderstorm would have rolled through, and the Twins and Royals would have started their four-game series around 9 p.m. (a couple of hours late).

Or, they would have rained out the game and announced a split doubleheader for Saturday, with the makeup at 12:35 and then the scheduled game at 6:10 p.m.

Without fans, the Twins said, '"Why wait?'' for the rain to stop, and why wait until 6:10 p.m. for the second game: "We'll play a doubleheader of adjacent 7-inning games starting early in the afternoon.''

That doesn't work when you're selling tickets, in season packages, or well in advance, and trying to stay as close to 81 home dates as possible. When you miss one of those, you give back money.

And, sorry, 7-inning fans, you can't have 30,000 people show up on a Friday night for a scheduled 9-inning game, rain it out, and then announce it's being made up as a stand-alone 7-inning game the next afternoon – and that you're also turning the 9-inning game previously scheduled for 6:10 p.m. into a 7-inning game.