Red Sox - 23 - 5 3 0 Orioles - 0 - 0 0 1(At 7:33, this was tonight's linescore. At 10:06, it was washed down the memory hole.)
On yet another rainy evening in Baltimore, the Red Sox led 5-0 in the top of the second inning when the tarp was brought out. After a delay of two hours and thirty-three minutes, the game was postponed. Thirty minutes later, the Globe's Peter Abraham tweeted a photo of the field with the words: "No longer raining here".
Sean McAdam tweeted: "Red Sox are livid with handling of weather/postponement. An angry Alex Cora made his disappointment clear. Price refused to answer questions". In his story for the Boston Sports Journal, McAdam quoted Cora:
"[W]e had a 5-0 lead and we have one of our horses on the mound. It's not like it's a guaranteed win. But ... every game matters. It happened two days ago, with a rain-delay after two outs in the first inning and it happened again tonight. I'm not happy about it. I'm annoyed about the whole three-game series. ..."The game will be made up at 1 PM on Saturday August 11, as part of a day-night doubleheader, before the regularly scheduled game at 7 PM.
Asked what he would have preferred for the Orioles to do, Cora chuckled and said: "Not started it." ...
Under Major League Baseball rules, the decision to start a game rests with the home team when it's not the final series in that city for the visiting team. Once lineup cards are exchanged, the decision to stop, restart or cancel a game altogether rests with the umpires. ...
The decision to wait, resume or cancel is made, [crew chief Fieldin] Culbreth said, by "many people. That is not something we take lightly. A lot of thought goes into that."
So: Did the Orioles look at this evening's weather data at all? If they thought it would rain long enough that the game had to be cancelled, why would they have informed the umpires that it was fine to start the game on time? During the delay, how could "many people" all have been clueless that the rain was about to stop? Did the Orioles pass on incorrect weather information to the umpires?
It had been announced on the Orioles broadcast that everyone was waiting until 10:30 to make a final decision. Yet the game was called at 10:06. Why the sudden rush? By 10:30, the rain had stopped. The game should have been resumed.
The Orioles clearly fucked up the situation (which is somewhat amusing considering how loudly Buck Showalter has whined in the past about rain delays). There are only two possibilities: either the Orioles are grossly incompetent or they did it deliberately to screw the Red Sox.
The Red Sox had hit three home runs for their five runs. Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez (above) went back-to-back in the first inning. Mookie Betts hit a three-run dong in the second* after Rafael Devers had reached on a dropped fly ball in left and Sandy Leon had walked.
*: Last night I posted that Betts had homered in every inning this season but the second and ninth. So he goes deep in the second tonight. But it does not count.
David Price pitched a clean first inning on 11 pitches, striking out the first two batters and getting a pop to shallow center.
Here is what was played - and has now been wiped away as if it never happened:
T1: Betts (cf) flied to left. Benintendi homered to right-center. Martinez (cbb) homered to left. Bogaerts (cff) flied to left [edge of warning track]. Pearce (fbb) ground to third.
B1: Beckham (cbbfb) struck out looking. Schoop (sbf) struck out swinging. Jones popped to shallow center. [Pearce chased Schoop's foul ball in foul territory towards right field. He suddenly stopped and the ball fell right next to him, on his left. Someone in the crowd may have yelled "I got it" and Pearce thought it was Betts or Holt.]
T2: Holt (b) grounded to second. Devers (b) safe at second on Mancini's error. [On a popup to shallow left, Mancini tried at the last second to make a basket catch. The ball clanked off his glove and went into foul territory.] Leon (bbfb) walked. [Rain started falling on ball 3.] Bradley (c) lined to first. Betts homered to left-center. Benintendi (b
Betts, RFThe Athletic's Jen McCaffrey examines "how the Red Sox have pulled ahead of the Yankees":
Benintendi, LF
Martinez, DH
Bogaerts, SS
Pearce, 1B
Holt, 2B
Devers, 3B
Leon, C
Bradley, CF
1. Boston hits better with runners in scoring positionThe Ace of Spaeder:
Entering Wednesday, Boston was hitting about 100 points better (.873) than New York (.777) with runners in scoring position ... In four fewer games, the Yankees have driven in 321 runs with runners in scoring position while the Red Sox have driven in 386. ... In 110 plate appearances with the bases loaded, Boston is hitting .337 with a 1.038 OPS. In a strange coincidence, New York has 111 plate appearances with the bases loaded this year, but is hitting just .236 with a .679 OPS. ...
3. Boston plays better on the road.
... The Red Sox are 34-13 at home and hitting .288 with an .854 OPS at Fenway. The Yankees have an almost identical record at home, 34-14, while hitting .265 with an .827 OPS. But Boston has been much better at winning on the road. The Red Sox have posted a 37-19 mark on the road while the Yankees are 29-21. ... The Yankees have only scored 57 more runs than they've allowed on the road while Boston has scored 79 more than they've allowed. With bases loaded and otherwise, the Red Sox are doing more with their opportunities. ...
J.D. Martinez is batting .316/.381/.687 with 123 R, 62 HR, & 157 RBI over his last 162 games played. He adds a .438 wOBA and 174 wRC+ during that span.AL East: The Rays beat the Yankees this afternoon 3-2, so the MFY are now 5.5 GB.
4 comments:
SoSH Thread:
TFisNEXT
How did they make the decision to cancel literally minutes before the rain stopped? What a bunch of fucking idiots.
DennyDoyle'sBoil
I'm curious whether the Commissioner's Office was consulted. I have trouble believing the crew chief wants September to come and to have a player lose an HR title or a team lose a division without having some cover. I would guess there is communication.
Reggie's Racquet
How much do we think ESPN had any input into not resuming the game? Perhaps they didn't want the broadcast to go that late. I find it interesting that the delay was very prominent on ESPN.com then when they cancelled the comments by Cora and the Red Sox players on how it was handled are nowhere to be found on the site.
Jed Zeppelin
The next time we're beating this shit franchise by double digits, we better be scoring on every sac fly, taking every extra base, sacrifice bunting guys into scoring position, pinch-hitting in fortuitous situations, and then do it all over again the next night.
Before tonight's debacle, McAdam had these pitchers:
Twins: Johnson Thursday; Sale Friday; Porcello Saturday; Eovaldi Sunday.
Phillies: Price Monday; Pomeranz Tuesday.
Yankees: Sale Thursday; Porcello Friday; Eovaldi Saturday; Price Sunday (ESPN).
OB was off to a great start tonight!
T1: Said Betts "rocketed" one to left (F7). Maybe 60 seconds later, said Benintendi "rockets" one to right (HR). .. Again said Benintendi is looking like a "100-RBI man". He has 61 now. ... Says Pearce has reached base in 17 of his last 31 PAs, then gives his batting average (instead of his OBP, which measures the exact thing he just gushed about). ... Said it was "very rare" for a team to increase their division lead on a road trip, as the Red Sox have done (4.5 GB to 5.5 GB). (This "very rare" thing must happen numerous times every single season in every division.)
B1: Said Eovaldi "had Tommy John in high school. Missed all of last year." (Eovaldi, being 28, was not in high school last year.)
T2: Said Leon led the AL in Catchers ERA last year and leads the AL this year. OB clearly had no idea what the stat is, but he expressed doubt about its validity. He knows he can go online and read/learn about the stat, right?
I did not hear whether Betts's HR was "rocketed" or not.
DeadlySplitter:
The umps just didn't want to stay until 1-2am. Typical
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