With frustration mounting, Twins veterans call off rookie costumes for flight to Boston

BOSTON – A plastic bag crammed with some fluorescent green clothing lay hidden in the bottom of Brooks Lee’s locker in the Twins clubhouse Friday. What’s in the bag, Brooks?

“I have no idea,” the rookie infielder said. “It’s what I was supposed to wear.”

Something humiliating, no doubt, the product of the fertile minds of Pablo López and Kyle Farmer, Twins organizers of one of baseball’s annual, if lesser-known, traditions: Embarrass the rookies by making them wear goofy costumes on a travel day, on the team plane, bus and at the hotel.

Thursday’s flight to Boston had been selected as the day, and López had purchased and distributed the costumes to the five Twins rookies on the trip — Lee and pitchers Simeon Woods Richardson, David Festa, Zebby Matthews and Ronny Henriquez — plus broadcaster Cory Provus, whom López called an “honorary rookie” because it’s his first season calling games on television rather than radio.

But after the Twins were beaten in a 10th-inning walkoff Thursday afternoon, their third crushing one-run loss to the Guardians in four days, the Twins veterans called off Rookie Day. It didn’t feel like the right time to behave in a lighthearted manner, López said.

“It’s very safe to assume the vibe was going to be off if we went ahead with it, so collectively, we just decided that it made sense” to cancel, López said. “Our eyes are on the Boston series. We can turn this thing around, so let’s go. We just all agreed that our focus should be on that.”

The Twins were annoyed with themselves — have been much of the year, actually — at their inability to win more of the close games they played against the Guardians this year, catcher Ryan Jeffers said. The Twins lost the season series 10-3, and the margin of victory was two runs or fewer in nine of the 13 games.

“We could have swept them this week. We lost three games we should have won,” Jeffers said. “So it wasn’t the right time. That was the right call.”

So instead of a prank, Farmer addressed his teammates on the flight to Boston, reminding them, López said, “that no matter what has happened the past few weeks, they don’t define this team. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this position, where we still control our own destiny over these last nine games.”

And the costumes might not go to waste yet, López said.

“We still have one more flight, to go home on Sunday,” he said. “So we’ll see what happens.”

Sporadic rain kept the Twins from taking batting practice before Friday’s game. It also prevented outfielders Matt Wallner, who had never played at Fenway Park, and Trevor Larnach, who has seven games of experience here, from practicing defense in the 112-year-old park’s unique dimensions.

First base coach Hank Conger put himself through a refresher, with manager Rocco Baldelli, on how to coach with that left-field wall looming, too.

“On any of those rockets off the [Green] Monster, a lot of times you’ll see players run to second and they’re out by 15 feet and they don’t know what happened,” Baldelli said. “It’s a conversation worth having.”

“There’s always a yearly conversation between me and Rocco, because of his experience playing here,” Conger said, citing the danger of players hitting a ball off the wall and assuming it’s an automatic double. “You have to make your decision a tick quicker than normal. I try to make it a point to get closer to the base, so they can hear me and I can make a call quick.”

And he’s careful to yell “stop, stop” rather than “no, no” when he wants a player to stay at first — “When the crowd is loud, I’ve had players hear ‘No’ as ‘Go,’ " Conger explained.

• Twins owner Joe Pohlad and his family sat in the second row next to the Twins dugout Friday, while President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey (a Lynn, Mass., native) and several family members sat three rows behind them.

• The St. Paul Saints gave up three runs in the top of the ninth inning, aided by two errors and a two-run home run, as Indianapolis rallied for an 8-6 victory at CHS Field. Saints catcher Chris Williams went 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBI and scored three runs.