Cleveland and Minnesota are playing baseball in San Juan tonight, which marks Puerto Rico’s first meaningful MLB game since 2010. That makes this otherwise pretty random April match-up extremely meaningful for Cleveland’s most lovable player—shortstop Francisco Lindor. Lindor was born in Caguas, 20 miles from San Juan, before he moved to Florida when he was 12. And the reception he received at this homecoming game already seemed to overwhelm him before the first pitch was even thrown.
But it was nothing compared to the response from the crowd when Lindor opened the scoring in the top of the fifth with a dinger to right field. Besides looking utterly geeked as he strutted towards home, Lindor also got a massive curtain call while the local crowd chanted his name.
By the way, Minneapolis, where this game would have been held, is just recovering from some unprecedented April snowfall. Let’s play more April games in San Juan.