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NEW YORK—If you’re thinking the Orioles have had a lot of rainouts recently, you’re correct. On Monday night, the Orioles and New York Yankees waited more than two hours past the scheduled 6:35 p.m. starting time before the game was postponed.
Tuesday’s game was postponed just before 5 p.m.
It was the fifth rainout of the season, and third on the road. Monday’s game will be made up as part of a Wednesday doubleheader that will begin at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday’s game will be made up on August 12 as part of a day/night doubleheader that will begin at 1:05 p.m. The regularly scheduled game begins at 7:05 p.m.
David Hess, who was scheduled to pitch Monday’s game, will pitch the first game. Andrew Cashner, Tuesday’s scheduled starter, will pitch the second game.
The Orioles get a 26th man for the second game. Josh Rogers, who was scheduled to start for Triple-A Norfolk on Tuesday, was scratched from his start and could join the Orioles on Wednesday.
After the rain stopped on Monday, an announced start time of 7:45 was given, but the field was unplayable. No announcement was made to the fans at Yankee Stadium for the reason of the delay.
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde and Yankees manager Aaron Boone met on the field with the umpires twice. By the second time, with more rain forecast, Hyde thought the game would not be played.
“Another band coming through, and then it didn’t make any sense to play,” Hyde said. “Initially, when I walked out there, the field not playable. It was really obvious that the field was not playable.”
Hyde, Boone and the umpires agreed that the standing water in left field would have to cleared before a game could be played.
“Standing water everywhere,” Hyde said.
“They pushed the game back. We talked about 20 minutes later, and we talked about the band coming through. It just didn’t make any sense to put the tarp back on, and dump it in the same spot, have the outfield take more water. I didn’t think it was even going to be possible to play. I think they made the right choice.”
In addition to the five rainouts, the Orioles have had three rain delays totaling seven hours, 45 minutes.
The most recent came on Sunday, when the Orioles and Los Angeles Angels waited two hours, 42 minutes to begin their game. Since the Angels were making their only trip to Baltimore, a rainout would have had to have been made up on a mutual off-day that wouldn’t necessitate either team playing more than 20 consecutive days.
The first day that was a possibility was August 26, when the Orioles were in the middle of a homestand. But Los Angeles would have had to fly from Houston to Baltimore for one game, then immediately back home to begin a homestand.
The game could have been played in Anaheim in late July, when the Orioles are there, but the Orioles would have had to forfeit a home game, something teams don’t like to do.
Instead, the fans who stayed were invited to take any empty seat in the lower seating bowl and can attend another game in the “Classic” or “Value” category.
Based on Monday’s forecast, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if the game had been postponed early in the day. On April 30, the Chicago White Sox announced their game with the Orioles was postponed more than five hours before its scheduled start time.
Postponing games is risky business. No one likes doubleheaders, and despite baseball romantics believing fans will come for two games for the price of one, there’s no evidence to show that they draw extra fans.
The Orioles-White Sox doubleheader lasted nearly eight hours from start to finish, including a half-hour break between games, and few fans attended.
This isn’t a new trend. In 2018, the Orioles had eight rainouts.
Pop has Tommy John surgery: Bowie right-handed pitcher Zach Pop underwent successful Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, Orioles general manager Mike Elias announced. The surgery was performed by Dr. James Andrews.
Pop, who was acquired in the Manny Machado trade from the Los Angeles Dodgers last July, had an 0.84 ERA in eight appearances this season.
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Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery Zach!
That sucks for Pop. He has the makings of a very good reliever. Hopefully he comes back looking the same.
Interestingly, on the main page the article is listed as published at 5:29 PM, while inside it's at 10:01 PM.
That happens when a revision is made.
Wish I could buy into Dr. James Andrews(a la stock market). He's always being called upon AND does the procedure himself--impressive. Good luck Zach. These procedures seem to be nothing more than a process now days. O's FINALLY do seem to have some fine arms down on the farm.
I know what youre' saying, it really is commonplace but try telling Dylan Bundy how it's nothing more that a process.
For a team as fastidious as the O's about physicals before signing players, they sure have a lot of TJ cases. Why not just send all new pitchers to Jim Andrews and get it over with. In my opinion, I don't think this surgery should be called "successful" until a player is back performing at his former level or better. Or at least is able to use his arm for normal everyday tasks. Not dying on the table isn't good enough. Recuperation therapy is part of the procedure, and until it's finished, the jury is out. As for double headers, attendance may not noticeably increase --although what do you expect on a Wednesday afternoon?-but if attendance is equal, the concessions should do a pretty good business. After four or five hours, people get hungry and thirsty.
Every team has pitchers who have Tommy John surgery, Will. It seems most people don't stay for two entire games, but doubleheaders are a necessity with the schedule the way it is and lots of rain.
If you looked at the data I’m sure we’d be in the bottom half of the league in that regard. Whether that is luck or otherwise many teams have been hit much worse by that than the Baltimore Orioles.
Almost a billion bucks to tear down the House that Ruth built and put up a shopping mall with a baseball field in the center, you'd think old George could've shelled out a few bucks for a drainage system.
Goodness, the Machado keeps looking worse and worse. Diaz doesn't look that good and now Pop has to have TJ. Count me among the baseball romantics that will at least sit through most (maybe miss an inning or 2) of the first game of a double header and stay till the 2nd is over (barring a big blowout). Ever since the steroid era that provided super human performances and cheap thrills, baseball fans have kind of lost their mojo.
The first game of Wednesday's doubleheader was 2 hours, 12 minutes. If DHs always had short games, I'd rethink my position, BirdsCaps.