CLEVELAND — Punxsutawney Phil should have warned us we had more than six weeks of winter left.
For the second day in a row, the Guardians and White Sox had to postpone their matchup until Tuesday night due to rain, snow, wind and cold temperatures. This time, the competition will be held on Wednesday as a traditional doubleheader, starting at 2:10 p.m. ET.
“When you play tonight you start worrying about hurting someone or playing the game when you shouldn’t,” said Guardians manager Terry Francona. “Part of it was part of it [the ground] might have been frozen, and when it did thaw, with the wind picking up, it was going to be pretty miserable. To the point where you start worrying about your boys.”
Anyone who had tickets for Tuesday’s originally scheduled competition can exchange them for entry to one of five game options, including Wednesday’s doubleheader. Fans who already had tickets for Wednesday’s game at 6:10 p.m. can attend both games of the doubleheader and have the same seat for both competitions. Fans wishing to exchange their tickets for a different game must do so via CLEGuardians.com/mytickets by June 28 at 5pm GMT.
Once again, the Guardians will push back all of their starters by one game. Shane Bieber is now scheduled to take over the ball in Game 1 against White Sox southpaw Dallas Keuchel on Wednesday. In the nightcap, Triston McKenzie will take on right Jimmy Lambert. That leaves a matchup between Zach Plesac and Dylan Cease for Thursday’s series finale at 1:10 p.m.
“We’re potentially going to have 27 innings in 27 hours, which isn’t perfect,” Francona said. “But when you’re supposed to play, you play. When you’re not, you don’t. I think everyone sort of came to the same conclusion.”