Before the season, Major League Baseball warned clubs that there might be some long weather delays because of the new balanced schedule. Even with that expectation, Sunday's situation was extreme.
A game that was supposed to start at 1:10 p.m. local time in Detroit was finally postponed at 6:15 p.m. local time, with most of those five hours not actually including rain at Comerica Park. The Giants and Tigers will now make up the final game of the three-game series on July 24.
"It was terrible," Giants players' union alternate representative Alex Cobb told reporters in Detroit. "I mean, we've been here since 10:00 a.m. and really no information was given to us. I think that ideally we would have just handled that rain delay early and then played. I know the threat was there but MLB is making the decision, not us. You try to stay locked in as long as you can and stay moving."
The new schedule means every team plays every other team at least once a year, but that has led to complications. It's much easier to postpone games against teams within your own division and teams from other divisions that you will see at a different venue later in the year, but that's not possible with a series like Giants-Tigers. This was supposed to be the only time this year the two teams would play.
MLB built extra off days into the schedule early on to make sure that there was a limit to how many games were being made up late in the year, but in this case, that doesn't help the Giants. They had extra days off on their first trip through New York and Chicago but didn't need them.
You could make a strong argument that nobody needed Sunday's delay, either, but a decision was made shortly before the first pitch was supposed to be thrown and it soon became clear it was premature. With the tarp on the field but sun shining, many Tigers fans stayed in their seats for the first couple hours of the delay. At one point, TV cameras caught a woman putting sunscreen on her young daughter and two young fans eating ice cream cones under a clear sky.
San Francisco Giants
With MLB's new pace of play rules, the Giants and Tigers likely could have gotten through most of a game, if not a full one, before heavy rain arrived, but it wasn't to be.
"We had people going out and checking, but it's a hard thing to predict, obviously," Cobb said. "The worst case for both teams would have been to have our starters go out there for two or three innings and have an hour rain delay and then try and piece together the rest of the game. Neither side wanted that. I think that was taken into consideration, as well. I still think it could have been handled a little bit better."
The makeup date is a mutual off day for both teams, although it's far from ideal. The Giants will be extending a 10-game, three-city trip to start the second half, playing an extra one in Detroit as they did last year when they had to travel to Milwaukee for one night at the end of a trip. They'll now open the second half with 13 games in 13 days. The Tigers will now open their second half with 17 consecutive games, although they'll at least be home before and after that mutual off day, so they don't have to worry about additional travel.
It was a disappointing end result for the Giants, who made it clear to the other side that they wanted to get the game in on Sunday. Cobb tried to find a silver lining, though, pointing out that the lineup is currently depleted and the bullpen has had a long week. The Giants should be able to arrive in Miami at a reasonable time to prepare for another three-game series.
The rainout kept Logan Webb from starting, but he'll get the ball Monday in Miami. He'll be followed by Alex Wood and Cobb.
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Manager Gabe Kapler appeared animated during on-field discussions during the delay but shrugged off a rough day when he spoke after the game. He told reporters in Detroit that most of the discussions happened in the umpires room at Comerica Park, where Kapler huddled with general manager Pete Putila and Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and president of baseball operations Scott Harris, who was the Giants' GM last year and worked closely with Kapler.
"It was definitely a challenging situation," Kapler said. "Every team I've been around deals with these. It's not unique in any way and nothing that we can't handle. We'll get to Miami and get ready to play a three-game series."