Rain delay without rain holds up start of game at Yankee Stadium
Field crews roll out the tarp due to inclement weather before the New York Yankees take on the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2017, in New York. Credit: AP / Michael Noble Jr.
What if they held a rain delay and it didn’t rain?
That’s what happened on Wednesday afternoon at Yankee Stadium when the start of the 1 p.m. game was delayed until 2:31 because of the threat of a major storm.
Except it didn’t rain during that period.
“I don’t know what the thought process is on that,” Chase Headley said. “Obviously, that’s not our decision, but it seems like that happens more than it should. They’re trying to make the best decision. Obviously, nobody wants that. It doesn’t turn out great when it happens like that. We’re in a rain delay and it’s clear.”
It did rain heavily beginning at 4:50 p.m., which delayed the Yankees’ 2-0 loss to the Tigers for three hours and 11 minutes before the start of the eighth inning.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said the decision to delay the start of the game was made by Major League Baseball.
“They thought it was going to rain hard and they were the ones that were in charge,” Girardi said.
MLB, in a statement, said: “The decisions were made after consulting with the Yankees based on the forecast.”
MLB has shown a penchant in recent years for delaying games at the start because of the fear that bad weather could cause both teams to lose their starting pitchers after a few innings.
“They were expecting heavy rain at 1:00, 1:30,” Girardi said. “It never really came. I think they were trying to protect both sides from using a starter and then [losing] a starter after two or three innings. I didn’t have a problem with it.”
Extra bases
Dellin Betances struck out the side in the eighth on nine pitches. It was the sixth so-called “immaculate inning” in Yankees history . . . OF Aaron Hicks (oblique strain) played five innings and went 1-for-3 in his first rehab game for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
