It was pretty clear when Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Houston that the Astros wouldn’t be starting their series against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday at Minute Maid Park.
While the ballpark itself didn’t sustain any damage, historic flooding put Houston in a state of emergency, making it extremely dangerous — and in some parts impossible — to travel around the city. The Rangers and Astros eventually settled on playing their series at Tropicana Field while the Tampa Bay Rays are in Kansas City, but how they came to that conclusion is somewhat questionable.
Astros president Reid Ryan asked the Rangers if they wanted to switch their two remaining series, per KRIV-TV’s Mark Berman, which would put this week’s series in Arlington, Texas, and move their Sept. 25 t0 27 set to Houston. But the Rangers refused because that would mean having to finish out their regular season with 12 road games, and they have a shot at a wild-card spot.
“I say that kind of cringing, honestly, because it pales in comparison to the true-life challenges a lot of people are facing right now with the weather down there,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said of the decision, per SI.com. “I say that with being very much aware of the contrast of what’s really going on.”
The decision really isn’t a good look for the Rangers, considering the gravity of the situation in Houston. And not only do the Astros have a 14-game lead over the 65-66 Rangers in the American League West, but the AL wild-card race is stacked, and Texas isn’t a shoo-in sitting three games back of the second spot with eight teams reasonably competing for them.
Still, not all the blame can be placed on the Rangers, as the Astros also refused to accept Texas’ offer of moving the series to Arlington with Houston as the home team. It wouldn’t be ideal financially for the Astros to lose a home series, but they’re also almost guaranteed to win the AL West so it wouldn’t have necessarily made a difference in the standings.
Plus, more than 3,485 people would have shown up Tuesday.
Story and thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images
