Twins and Dodgers delay game eighteen minutes to argue about the lineup

Have you ever just been watching a Twins vs. Dodgers game on TV, minding your own business, when suddenly everyone stops playing the game and starts arguing about the lineup for FIFTEEN PLUS MINUTES and no one has any idea what is going on? Because that is one item I can now cross off my illustrious bucket list.

Here’s what happened (?) during the Tuesday night game: With two outs in the bottom of the 6th inning, Twins manager Paul Molitor attempted to make a double switch (we think). Somehow, the double switch was botched? Both managers and the umpires continued to argue for EIGHTEEN MINUTES.

Literally. The cameras just kept rolling, waiting for the game to resume, for eighteen minutes. It was riveting. I just kept staring at my TV, asking it, “What is going on?” Twins television broadcasters Jack Morris and Dick Bremer repeated back to me, “What is going on?” I mean, that happens sometimes in baseball, sure—but this went on for EIGHTEEN MINUTES. No commercial breaks. Nothing. Just me, watching them argue, without explanation, for eighteen minutes.

Vin Scully could have won a Nobel Peace Prize for narrating this.

The umpires even called MLB headquarters in New York in the middle of this argument—not to review video, but just to ask them a question.

Here is GameDay’s explanation of the event:

How.... what?

At the end of the day eighteen minutes, Eddie Rosario had to be removed from left field, because pitcher Ryan Pressly supposedly replaced him. The Twins then had to move Ehire Adrianza to left field to cover for Rosario, though the box score says Adrianza technically replaced pitcher Trevor Hildenberger in the lineup.

We got to see Bartolo Colon bat for maybe the last time in his career yesterday. I’m over the whole pitchers batting thing now. Thank you.

UPDATE:

The Twins press box has tweeted out the following clarifications:

/makes a cross with fingers and backs away from baseball game hissing