CLEVELAND — It's a baby girl named Louisa Sunny born in the middle of night for Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and his wife, Allie.
Acting manager Bill Evers told reporters before Tuesday's 3-0 victory at Cleveland that Baldelli texted him at 3:44 a.m. to say his first child had just been born. Evers called Baldelli a "proud father" and said father, mother and child all are "wonderful."
Louisa weighed six pounds, eight ounces.
"It was awesome, brings tears to my eyes knowing he texted me right after the baby was born," Evers said. "So it was cool."
Evers said Baldelli probably will rejoin the team for Friday's home game against Kansas City after a four-game series at Cleveland concludes Thursday night.
"My educated guess is probably Friday we'll see him taking over the helm of the Minnesota Twins and me sitting alongside him smiling," Evers said.
Evers also said the team is waiting for word anytime that would send outfielder Brent Rooker home to Minneapolis for his child's birth.
Joe's second go
Rookie pitcher Joe Ryan makes his second big-league start Wednesday against Triston McKenzie after an impressive debut with his high fastball and change-of-speed pitching last week in a 3-0 home loss to the Cubs.
Pitching coach Wes Johnson called himself impressed by Ryan's "elite" fastball, slider and changeup. He said he has worked with Ryan to control his emotions — "I call them adrenaline dumps," Johnson said — for this second time out.
"It's tough to help them understand how to manage that adrenaline until they go through it," Johnson said. "I thought he threw the ball outstanding, especially for a debut and a lot of hype and so forth. One of the things we worked out is managing your energy and then executing pitches."
What's in a number?
Ryan was assigned jersey No. 74 by the Twins after he wore No. 14 "forever" in his career.
"Which is never going to happen," he said, referring to former Twins great Kent Hrbek, who wore 14. "Hey, you can dream. So many things were 14 for me. I haven't looked down the list to see what numbers I might be interested in."
He wore 40 in the Olympics, 4 in water polo and likes 34 as well, but ...
"Definitely not take 34 with my last name," he said.
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan wore 34. So did a guy for the Twins named Kirby Puckett, by the way.
Better safe …
Center fielder Byron Buxton went 0-for-5 on Tuesday after he was 4-for-10 with a homer and a double in his past two games, a breakout of sorts in his return from the injured list. He also went to the left-center field wall to catch a fly hit by Franmil Reyes — just shy of a grand slam — to end the third inning.
Buxton wore a pad to protect a left hand fractured in June when he was plunked there by a pitch. He had tried playing without it, too.
"It's something I'm still getting used to," he said. "I thought I was good enough to go up there without it, but kind of found myself a little bit hesitant, especially on inside pitches. ... Anything can happen in this game and I'm just trying to do whatever I can to prevent what happened last time."
Homesick to the Hall
Among the many prospects Evers managed during his long minor league career was a young shortstop named Derek Jeter. On Wednesday, that kid who won five World Series in 20 seasons with the Yankees gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"Early on, you could see that he was special, but it was going to take some time," Evers said. "His first year, he was a little homesick, being away from home for the first time. It just so happens that at the end of the year, he had to get a couple of base hits to hit over .200."
Jeter hit .202 that season in the Gulf Coast League in 1992. He batted .310 with 3,465 hits with the Yankees.
