Rain in Minneapolis forced the postponement of Saturday afternoon’s game. Instead, the Twins and Athletics will play two games Sunday and will have to contend with an excessive heat watch with the temperature potentially climbing into the ‘90s.

The two teams will play a split doubleheader with the first game beginning at 1:10 p.m. and the made-up game beginning at 6:40 p.m. Though both teams have Monday off, the teams are unable to play at Target Field because the stadium will be hosting state baseball games all day.

The Twins will wear their City Connect uniforms, which they were supposed to wear on Saturday, during the first game and Father’s Day gear for the second game. Fans who held tickets to Saturday’s game can use them for admission to Sunday night’s game.

Bailey Ober, who was scheduled to start on Saturday, is on tap for the first game with Chris Paddack, Sunday’s scheduled starter, drawing the start in the night game.

Mr. Walk-off

When Max Kepler hit a single on Friday, sending the Twins to a walk-off win, he also moved himself up the team history books.

That hit was his 10th walk-off plate appearance, a number that ties him with Kent Hrbek for third on the club’s all-time list. He’s behind just Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett, who each had 11.

“Special,” Kepler said of the achievement. “It’s an honor to be part of that list.”

It started with a walk-off home run — the first blast of his career — in 2016 off then-Red Sox reliever Matt Barnes. The walk-off hits, home runs and celebrations have kept coming since then.

“When the game is on the line, there are certain guys you want up there and you want them up there because you think they’re going to be productive,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “ … I think Kep is one of those guys. I do not believe it’s by chance that he just happens to have that many big moments late in games.”

So what is it, then, that makes Kepler so productive in those situations?

It’s more than just him being a good hitter — though that certainly helps — and his manager has a few guesses.

“I don’t know if he’s consciously doing this or this is just him as a ballplayer but he goes up there just looking for the ball,” Baldelli said. “If you go up there and you’re thinking about all kinds of different things and you’re worried about if you should swing first pitch or you should do this or you should — he’s not putting himself in a spot where he’s cluttered.”

Instead, Baldelli praised Kepler for going up in those big spots, with the game on the line, and treating his late-inning at-bats the same way as he would a first-inning or fifth-inning plate appearance.

“He’s not worried about what the guy’s going to throw. He’s not worried about anything. He’s just trying to hit the ball on the barrel and that’s it,” Baldelli said. “That’s actually something that probably a lot of players in this game, that mental state, they search their whole careers trying to find it. And it’s a hard thing to develop. That’s the way he plays baseball, that’s the way he approaches at-bats.”

Briefly

Kepler, who was hit on the elbow with a 99 mile per hour-pitch on Friday, was not in the starting lineup for Saturday’s game. Baldelli said he would likely need a day or two but the Twins did not believe he was dealing with anything that would be long term.

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