Twins' first 'Happy Hour' game turned into a wet, cold, sloppy mess

The rain delay was in effect at Target Field on Friday afternoon and a search was underway to find a Cuban sandwich. There was a belief this sandwich concocted in honor of Tony Oliva could be found on the rarely visited third deck.

Sadly, there was no Tony O. sandwich available up there on this day, but what was there: a fierce, freezing wind blowing through the open concourse.

"What's with this howling wind?" I asked a security person.

He shrugged and said: "Normal day up here. Unless it's one of those still summer days, it always blows."

This served as a personal exclamation mark on the Twins' failed attempt to test the potential for "Happy Hour" ballgames on future Fridays.

The Twins decided to try a 3:10 p.m. start, rather than a night game, on this April Friday to find out if it might attract the leave-work-early and/or live-downtown crowd.

They received no meaningful insights. There was a cold rain leading all the way to the advertised happy hour, which ended at the 3:10 p.m. game time.

Unfortunately, due to the rain, there would be another 115 minutes before the first pitch was thrown, and the few thousand customers loitering in the ballpark were back to paying retail for food and drink.

The weather was only part of what foiled the Twins to gain some attention Friday, between the Wild set for a survival game later in St. Paul and all the Vikings fans breathless in anticipation of their team's next selection with the 87th pick in the draft.

Bottom line: the Twins had nothing going for them as far as attracting a crowd, and then it almost got worse as they tried mightily to give back a game to the young, reeling Kansas City Royals.

The Twins had four of their offseason additions on the field and they were looking like fine assets through five innings.

Pablo López, after his first bad start, seemed to cruise with a 7-2 lead through five. And then he did a 180-degree turn to awful and let Kansas City back in the game.

Overall, it was a second consecutive poor start after it was revealed the Twins gave him a four-year, $73.5 million contract extension.

Come on, Pablo… you did cost the Twins an A.L. batting champion in Luis Arraez. You can't be letting the Royals off the hook on a cold, wet, two-hour delayed game.

The Royals got him for two runs in the sixth and the seventh. López was pulled in the seventh for Griffin Jax, who had to pitch out of his starter's mess. Caleb Thielbar needed a couple of free strikes from umpire Jerry Layne to get through the eighth.

Then Jorge López, impeccable in 10 previous appearances, got the ninth inning because of the absence of Jhoan Duran (immigration hearing).

Jorge decided to feature the hanging slider from his time with the Twins in 2022, loaded the bases, fell behind in the count, and finally struck out Nick Pratto on a high fastball to end it.

Twins 8, Kansas City 6. Now 5-0 for the season vs. KC, but Salvador (Perez) and the No-Names were given encouragement for the games ahead.

As for the other new guys, Christian Vázquez was the rock behind the plate, Michael A. Taylor was excellent in center and on the bases, and Joey Gallo — yes, he struck out a couple of times, but smashed a triple, drew a walk and kept his average at .265. That's 100-plus points more than in New York last season.

Manager Rocco Baldelli was waiting out the rain and was asked pregame if it was a tough decision for the Twins to sign Gallo.

The answer clearly was not at all.

"I first saw Joey when he was in high school, and I was scouting," Baldelli said. "He was such an unusual athlete. Even then, I said, 'I want that player.'

"When we talked about him this offseason, all of our baseball people said the same thing: 'Yes. Let's try to make it happen.'

"Jayce Tingler, our bench coach, had Joey when he was coaching in Texas. He said, 'You'll love him.' Really, from our standpoint, Joey was a no-brainer signing.

"And, in the field, at the plate, as a competitor … he's been everything we hoped for, and maybe more."