Empty Seats, Empty Swings

 You could hear the rain dripping off the awnings at Coca-Cola Palms Park louder than you could hear the fans by the third inning Sunday. The Twins had already blown the game open, Manny Parra had been chased, and most of the crowd was headed for the exits or staring blankly into the mist.

It’s one thing to get beat. That happens. It’s another thing entirely to get rolled — again — by the same opponent, and to look like you’d rather be anywhere else while it’s happening.

The Palms are 0–6 against Minnesota this year, and it’s not just the losses. It’s the way they’ve come: tentative swings, poor starts, quiet dugout. This was supposed to be a ballclub with a little bit of flair. They wear teal and tan, they’ve got veterans with pedigrees, they built this ballpark to be a party in the sun. And yet, when the Twins came to town, the whole vibe sagged.

“We’ve run into a buzzsaw,” Scott Hatteberg said afterward. Fair enough. But buzzsaws don’t have to cut quite so clean if you’re fighting back.

If Miami has bigger ambitions — if they want to be a legitimate player in the division and not just a colorful footnote — they have to stop letting visiting teams dictate the mood. Right now, Coca-Cola Palms Park feels like a rental, not a fortress.

Texas is next, and the Rangers don’t have Minnesota’s pitching staff. But that doesn’t matter if Miami’s hitters still carry the same body language into Arlington. This club has talent. What they need to show now is teeth.

Until then? You can expect a lot more gray afternoons, no matter what the weather report says.

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