Orioles-Yankees game postponed, doubleheader Wednesday

NEW YORK -- Even when the rain finally stopped, the Yankee Stadium outfield was still soaked.

And so, the game between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees was postponed Monday night because of wet field conditions.

Play never started and the game was called after a delay of about 2 hours, 15 minutes. It will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader Wednesday beginning at 3:05 p.m.

After two days of steady showers in New York, the Yankees first announced the scheduled 6:35 p.m. start would be delayed -- and later that the first pitch would be thrown at approximately 7:45 p.m. But after the rain let up and the tarp was removed from the infield, grounds crew members kept trying to dry the wet outfield with air blowers as Yankees players in full uniform waited in the dugout.

With more rain potentially on the way late at night, New York manager Aaron Boone and Baltimore skipper Brandon Hyde huddled with umpires in the outfield for a while before the Yankees announced the game had been postponed due to "unplayable field conditions."

"You're getting ready to play and everyone is getting hot and you get your pitcher warmed up and stuff and you realize, obviously, I think everyone saw by the images and what not, that it just wasn't playable there when we thought," Boone said.

"Usually the field drains pretty well. It was just, obviously, a bad situation there where the standing water in left field and then, all of a sudden, the emerging thought that maybe more rain was on the way. Definitely the right call to put this one off."

David Hess (1-4) had been slated to pitch for the Orioles. Luis Cessa (0-0) was pegged to fill in for New York after right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga went on the 10-day injured list earlier in the day with a strained rotator cuff.

Loaisiga was in the rotation as a replacement for injured James Paxton.

"Initially it was kind of, both pitchers get ready and kind of time everything around that, but then the water situation was more than anyone anticipated," Boone said. "You obviously saw our guys working hard trying to get all of that in every way they could. But it was taking a while, and then all of a sudden the reports emerge that some potential moderate rain was still on the way. So then you're talking about, when do we start this and pitchers being down, and so it became a pretty dicey situation and I think the wise move to put this one off."

Orioles right-hander Andrew Cashner (4-1) and Yankees lefty J.A. Happ (2-3) will stay on turn and pitch Tuesday night as planned.

Baltimore did not announce a starter for either game of the doubleheader. Domingo German will go in the opener Wednesday for New York, which is undecided for the nightcap.

"I think, for the team, it's better. For both teams," Cessa said.

Both teams have been doing plenty of waiting lately.

The start of Baltimore's 5-1 win over the Angels at home Sunday was delayed by rain for 2 hours, 42 minutes. New York's 7-1 victory Sunday at Tampa Bay was held up for 43 minutes in the ninth inning due to a power outage at Tropicana Field.

This time, the teams never even got going.

"You're thinking about players and safety and all that, but then kind of in the middle of all that the weather report kind of changed a little bit," Boone said. "And right then, Brandon and I were both in agreement that we've probably got to do something here."

TRAINER'S ROOM

Yankees C Gary Sanchez and SS Gleyber Torres were both back in the posted lineup after sitting out Sunday. Sanchez was hit hard on his catching helmet by Guillermo Heredia's backswing Saturday night in the eighth inning but stayed in the game. Torres played Saturday, one day after getting hit by a pitch on the right elbow. ... New York OF-DH Giancarlo Stanton (biceps/shoulder) took at-bats at the team's complex in Florida.

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