Red Sox Are Pretty Mad At Orioles Over Wednesday Rainout
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox are pretty upset at the Baltimore Orioles right now.
Boston pounced on the O's in Baltimore early Wednesday night, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the second inning. But then the skies opened over Camden Yards and the two teams found themselves in yet another rain delay. After two and a half hours of sitting around, the game was finally postponed. It washed away big swings by Andrew Benintendi, J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts, all of whom went yard to give Boston their lead, and a solid start to the game for lefty David Price, who set the Orioles down in order on 11 pitches in the bottom of the first.
Betts had barely crossed home plate after launching a three-run bomb off Orioles starter Dylan Bundy when the tarp was brought out. The rainout, which will now start over as part of a doubleheader on Aug. 11, was the conclusion of a soggy three-game set that featured a handful of delays and saturated innings.
The fact that Wednesday's game started at all despite an obvious threat of lengthy downpours is not sitting well with the Red Sox.
"[Expletive] yeah I'm pissed," Price told the Boston Globe as he walked out of Camden Yards.
"I feel for the team, actually. I don't care about the home runs," Boston manager Alex Cora told the Globe. "We have a 5-0 lead and we have one of the horses on our mound. It's not that it's a guaranteed win, but we know where we're at and every game matters."
Apparently, the Doppler radars down in Baltimore aren't very reliable. The two teams played for only 24 minutes after the game started at 7:08 p.m., and it wasn't the only game of the series to feature a delay shortly after the tilt got underway. Monday's series opener was delayed after Boston sent two batters up in the top of the first.
"I'm not happy about it," Cora said, adding that he would have never started Wednesday's game. "I'm annoyed about the whole three-game series."
The Orioles were the ones who decided to start the game on Wednesday, so you can understand why the Red Sox are so perturbed. Once it got underway, any decision on stopping play was left up to crew chief Fieldin Culbreath. The decision to call the game was made by Major League Baseball.
The Red Sox were hoping to resume play when the raindrops stopped falling, which happened around 10:45 p.m., but that was obviously did not happen. They'll now play the Orioles twice on Saturday Aug. 11, which isn't too bad considering they'll have only two games in the four days following that now four-game series in Baltimore.
But that still doesn't mean they're happy with the way things played out Wednesday night.
"It's tough to accept," Cora said. "But it is what it is, you know? Get on the plane, go to Boston and we have the Twins coming up."
The Red Sox return to Fenway Park Thursday for a 10-game homestand, starting with four games against the Minnesota Twins. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast for Thursday night.
At least Boston has much more reliable meteorologists.