BOSTON — There’s an old saying that if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute.
Or 102 minutes, in Monday’s case.
The Red Sox and Orioles were unable to complete their Patriots’ Day showdown at Fenway Park, as rain forced the umpires to call the game in the seventh inning after a 1-hour, 42-minute delay. It worked out well for the Red Sox, who earned a 7-1 win in the rain-shortened contest, but the conditions certainly proved tricky.
“Typically we don’t use (Junichi Tazawa) in the sixth inning. So you’re factoring in the rain that was forecasted and coming into the area,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said after the game when asked if a daunting forecast, like Monday’s, can impact a skipper’s decision-making. “(The rain) didn’t come in as quickly as we anticipated. It does factor into some of your thinking as far as the bullpen goes.”
Farrell removed Red Sox starter Justin Masterson after five innings. It partly was due to Masterson’s pitch count (93), but, as Farrell mentioned, the rainy forecast also was taken into consideration. It was a soggy morning/afternoon at Fenway that only figured to get soggier as the game progressed.
Interestingly, it barely rained for the duration of Monday’s rain delay. The bulk of the wet stuff — at least as far as the game was concerned — actually arrived before the L.L. Bean tarp was rolled out onto the field, rather than after the diamond was covered.
Ultimately, the correct decision was made, as torrential downpours engulfed Fenway a short time after the game was called. But the off-and-on rain, coupled with overcast skies that varied in ominousness from one minute to the next, gave the whole ordeal a sense of unpredictability. It was so New England.
“That’s a good question. That’s probably a good scientific question to ask a scientist,” Masterson said smiling when asked after the game whether rain benefits pitchers or hitters more. “If you’ve got some water on the bat, it’s going to take away some stickiness, so the ball may not travel as far, you might have a few more popups or things like that.
“It can make (the ball) a little bit harder to hold onto. But sometimes, it can make it good for a pitcher to hold onto. When you’ve got rain coming down, you’ve got a fielder trying to look up into the rain, there’s a lot of different things that could take place. But I don’t really think there’s one (thing) at that point (where the rain) is decently hard, but not that hard, that it really favors anyone too much.”
While Masterson said he can’t imagine running 26.2 miles, like those who completed the annual Boston Marathon, the right-hander found it easy to deal with the less-than-ideal conditions between the lines. It’s simply part of pitching in Boston, which he, of course, did several years ago before returning in free agency over the offseason.
“Even though the rain was coming, it didn’t feel terrible,” Masterson said. “The mound still held up pretty good as things went along, they kept the field in good shape.
“That’s what they do here at Fenway Park. The grounds crew does such a great job of making things so great that you get a little rain and they can handle that type of stuff.”
The umpires didn’t like the conditions Monday, so they waited and waited and waited. Sometimes, in New England, that’s enough.
Other times, Mother Nature has the final say.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
