Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — As we all know, weather at Dodger Stadium is ALWAYS wonderful. The last rainout was in April 2000. In fact, I don’t even know if the groundskeepers know where the tarp is, much less know how to roll it out. However, MLB and the Dodgers have made a pre-emptive strike against the weather this weekend. The team announced that Sunday afternoon’s game against the Miami Marlins will be rescheduled to be part of a day-night double header on Saturday.
For ticket holders, Sunday’s rescheduled game will become the early afternoon contest on Saturday, which is scheduled for 12 p.m. Game 2 has first pitch set for 6:10 p.m. PT, as originally scheduled.
The reason for all this hoo-ha is the oncoming Hurricane Hilary, which is expected to hit Southern California at some point on Sunday.
“This is crazy,” said manager Dave Roberts before Friday night’s series opener with the Marlins. “I mean, a hurricane in Southern California, that’s very unprecedented, clearly. So I just want to make sure we get ahead of it, people get safe and then it passes us by.”
In addition to the Dodgers, both the Angels and the Padres have made similar adjustments to their schedules.
It’s not clear exactly how that double header will affect the Dodgers’ pitching plans for the weekend. For now, we know that Julio Urias will pitch the nightcap as original scheduled, but Bobby Miller, original slated to be Sunday’s starter will be pushed back to somewhere in the upcoming road trip, most likely one of the games in Cleveland (Clayton Kershaw has dibs on Tuesday’s start against the Guardians).
Hilary, currently graded as a Category 4 storm, is expected to spawn a tropical storm that will likely make field conditions on Sunday unplayable. Some sources, including AccuWeather, project that the storm could bring a year’s worth of rain to parts of Southern California in the span of just a couple of days.
Yikes. Stay safe, Dodger fans.
