Not a lot of rain for a rainout, but Twins don't seem to mind

The Twins waited past their 1:10 p.m. start time Saturday, just in case. When the weather didn't change, they gave up about a half-hour later, and declared their game with Cleveland a rainout.

Pretty standard procedure, except for one noteworthy factor: It wasn't raining.

Fans filed out of Target Field in bewilderment, noting that the tarp wasn't covering the field and the scheduled starting pitchers, Kenta Maeda and Sam Hentges, were playing catch with teammates in the outfield. One grounds crew member was even watering the infield.

Rain came eventually, although for at least a couple of hours, nothing heavy enough to delay the game had it been in progress. But dicey forecasts — likely mixed with some baseball considerations — were enough to trigger a postponement.

The game was to pit a pair of teams that are navigating a severe shortage of healthy pitchers and facing schedules that don't include an off day until the All-Star break two weeks from now.

A rainout, in other words, came in handy. For the Twins, it pushed next Wednesday's "TBA" in their pitching rotation back a day, giving them more time to figure out how to fill it. Cleveland had planned to call up a Class AAA pitcher for Sunday's finale, but now won't need to.

Making the call even easier: Cleveland visits Target Field again for three games in August and two more in September — the latter series sandwiched by off days before and after. The teams chose that series for the makeup game, though by playing a doubleheader on Sept. 14 rather than sacrifice a day off.

"No team knows where they're going to be a couple of months from now, especially pitching-wise and depth-wise," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "But knowing you're able to add a game with off days surrounding it helps in a lot of different ways."

By scheduling the makeup game for 1:10 p.m., requiring a separate ticket from the 6:40 p.m. nightcap, the Twins also don't lose a home gate, as they did by playing their April 14 doubleheader with Boston as one event.

Hentges, the Mounds View graduate who expected dozens of family and friends in the crowd for his big-league Target Field debut, will be on the mound Sunday, weather permitting. But Baldelli said Maeda will wait another day and pitch Monday in Chicago. J.A. Happ will pitch Sunday as originally scheduled.

The reason? The manager cited Cleveland's lefty-heavy lineup, potentially a better fit for the lefthanded Happ than the righthanded Maeda, and the latter's preference for night games. Left unsaid: The White Sox are an AL-best 18-7 when facing a lefthanded starting pitcher, and they have torched Happ twice this season, scoring 15 runs in seven total innings, a 19.29 ERA.

The rest of the rotation in Chicago will be pushed back by a day, with Bailey Ober throwing on Tuesday and Jose Berrios on Wednesday. Thursday's finale could be entrusted to Griffin Jax, Matt Shoemaker, Danny Coulombe or some other option.

The rainout didn't just postpone a game, it shortened a party. Friends of Baldelli's fiancée, Allie Genoa, held a baby shower for her in a Target Field suite on Saturday.

The couple are expecting their first child, a daughter, in September.

"There's really not anything more that me and Allie are looking forward to in life than this," Baldelli said of their impending parenthood. "I've been told that it's probably going to change a lot of things, but all for the better. … It'll be a great time."

Michael Pineda faced a handful of teammates from the Target Field mound Saturday morning, throwing a couple dozen pitches in his first "live" session since going on the injured list because of forearm tightness. The righthander will start at least once for Class AAA St. Paul before being activated, Baldelli said.