BALTIMORE – The last time Fernando Romero pitched in a major league game, it was to make an emergency start for a shorthanded staff last July, and he was immediately sent back to the minors.
Romero will be in a Twins uniform again on Saturday, but this time he knows ahead of time that it's only a one-day cameo. Baseball rules allow teams to add a 26th player to the second-game roster when they play two games in one day, and the Twins chose Romero.
"He's looked good, and with the situation we're in right now, he fits really well," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "He's a guy that we think very highly of."
Romero, who was converted to a relief pitcher this spring, has pitched four times for Class AAA Rochester this season, and allowed runs — albeit four of them, on three home runs — in only one. He threw two perfect innings in his last outing, Tuesday against Syracuse, and has struck out 11 batters in 8⅓ total innings.
"He's made some nice adjustments," said Baldelli, who expects Romero to be available "anywhere from a batter to two, three innings" in Saturday's second game. "He's throwing the ball well in some spurts, and we're going to look to bottle him up."
More disruption
Heavy rains were pounding Camden Yards around 3 p.m. Friday when the Orioles decided to postpone their game with the Twins. Within 20 minutes of that decision, the rains stopped and didn't start again for quite a while. The scheduled 7 p.m. start time came and went with no precipitation; not until 9 p.m. did rain, much lighter than the afternoon's deluge, resume falling.
Such is the luck of the Twins, who have now spent seven days of the 22-day-old baseball season without playing a game, by far the most in the major leagues.
Regardless, the game will be made up on Saturday, starting at 3:05 p.m. Central time, with the second game following 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first one. Jose Berrios, who was to start Friday's game, will instead pitch the first game a day later, and Martin Perez will start the late game as scheduled.