Twins ask for moment of silence for Daunte Wright before their game

A moment of silence for Daunte Wright began Tuesday's Twins-Red Sox game at Target Field.

The day before, the stadium was also silent as the Twins postponed the series opener with the Boston Red Sox in the wake of Wright's death Sunday in Brooklyn Center when a police officer fatally shot him during a traffic stop.

With protests in the suburbs despite a 7 p.m. curfew, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said he went to bed Monday night feeling confident his team would play the next day. By 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, all the players had received the "game on" text.

The Red Sox beat the Twins 4-2. The teams will play a doubleheader Wednesday, the first of two seven-inning games starting at 1:10 p.m.

Fans with tickets for Wednesday's game can use them for both games. Ticket holders to Monday's game will receive two complementary tickets to a future weekday game.

Baldelli said the players supported the organization's move to postpone Monday's game, and expressed admiration for former Twins outfielder Aaron Hicks, who elected to individually sit out of the Yankees game Monday after Wright's death.

"The fact that they have an environment where a player can do something like that and feel supported and feel completely accepted in that manner, I think, is actually a beautiful thing," Baldelli said.

Starting pitcher J.A. Happ and reliever Randy Dobnak said the unexpected day off didn't seem to affect them or the clubhouse much at all.

"Every day I wake up, and I kind of have the mind-set that we're going to play today, until something comes up … whether it's weather-related or something like this," Dobnak said. "If you wake up and kind of think you're not going to play that day, you kind of get yourself out of however you go about your typical days."

Twins designated hitter Nelson Cruz was a late scratch from Tuesday's lineup after coming down with a non-COVID-19-related illness. Cruz went home to rest before the game began, and Baldelli did not have a further update on him postgame.

"He's just not feeling well. That happens," Baldelli said. "Obviously, he's a really important part of what we do and out there facing a lefty [Tuesday], but we have to find a way to come together and have some good at-bats and score a few more runs either way."

Injections of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine halted Tuesday after findings revealed six cases of a rare blood clot from the nearly seven million people in the U.S. who received the shot.

Many of the Twins tier one personnel — which includes players, staff and their families — received the J & J vaccine last week at Target Field in hopes of reaching an 85% threshold that would allow for lightened COVID-19 protocols.

Baldelli said while he had only seen the news about the CDC's recommending a temporary pause in administering the vaccine he received April 8, he did not regret being vaccinated.

"It ends up as a headline in the news when I think we're talking about an unfortunate but very small group," Baldelli said. "Of course, no one wants to read about any kind of side effects, but I think with the challenges of COVID and the destructiveness of the virus, it didn't seem like something that I would spend a lot of time worrying about.

"When you are talking about maybe some individuals who are hesitant to get a vaccine, and all of a sudden there is a headline that looks scary, I think it frightens people. And it's upsetting to me because, when you actually read the information and look at it, it's not anything close to as frightening as it would seem."