The Twins did not complain about Francisco Lindor’s home run celebration

During the 5th inning of last night’s Twins vs. Cleveland Indians game in Puerto Rico, Francisco Lindor broke up a 0-0 tie game with a two-run home run off Twins starter Jake Odorizzi. It was a huge moment for the native Puerto Rican, who was beaming ear-to-ear and waving to the crowd as he rounded the bases.

Obviously it was a huge moment for baseball and Puerto Rico, and one Lindor is surely never to forget. As much as it Lindor annoys me — after all, I am a Twins fan — I can still admit it was pretty cool.

For some reason, after the game, Lindor apologized to reporters about celebrating his home run.

Here’s the thing: the Twins... never said anything about Lindor celebrating his home run? Lindor issued this apology entirely on his own, for whatever reason.

It certainly didn’t stop people from jumping all over the Twins, though:

Ugh, yes, of course — everyone is jumping to the conclusion the Twins complained or were upset about Lindor’s home run because Brian Dozier said all that dumb crap about a bunt a couple weeks ago.

In reality, the Twins haven’t complained about Lindor. Jesse Sanchez tried to clarify his tweet this morning, but I’m afraid it’s maybe too little too late.

Why, god, why did Brian Dozier have to make that huge, stupid stinky-poo about bunting against the shift? Now we’re going to be dealing with people calling Twins the Fun Cops for at least the rest of the season no matter how fast Byron Buxton runs.

The Twins are a fun, young team, with plenty of Latin American players, including Puerto Ricans Jose Berrios and Eddie Rosario. They are just as excited to be playing in Puerto Rico as Lindor and Cleveland, and they were equally aware of the culture and the magnitude of the moment. Hell, THEY WERE THERE. Why in the world would they complain about Lindor’s not-even-that-overt celebration in front of thousands of screaming fans from his native home?

“I’m pleased that my country came out to support us,” Rosario told reporters about the sold-out crowd after the game. “Great emotions to be here. Happy that we’re here.”

So I have no idea why Lindor decided to apologize to the Twins. Maybe he was trying to take a subtle jab at Brian Dozier and his previous and unrelated unwritten rules comments. More likely, Lindor felt compelled to apologize because of the whole ingrained idea in baseball that hitters aren’t supposed to “show up” the other team by “celebrating” or showing any of the emotion that players in Latin America typically do. For some reason, some people think that isn’t “playing the game the right way,” but I can tell you here, in this case, those people were not the Twins.