CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Guardians came this close to using an “opener” before Mother Nature said never mind. Reliever Nick Sandlin was preparing to make his first big league start on Wednesday night when the Guardians postponed the 6:40 p.m.
game because of approaching bad weather. The game will be made up as a day-night doubleheader on Aug. 26.
When the grounds crew pulled the tarp onto the infield at around 5 p.m., they did so under clear skies.
A light rain started to fall shortly after that. At 6:30 p.m.
the rain returned with intensity. Wednesday was lefty Logan Allen’s day to start, but manager Stephen Vogt said the organization determined that using Sandlin for an inning or two followed, perhaps, by Allen, gave the Guardians the best chance to beat the Royals, their closest pursuers in the AL Central. “We just got together and we were talking about strategies to win tonight’s game,” Vogt told reporters before the postponement.
“Just looking at our roster and how to go about navigating one single game, we thought having Nick start the game would give us the best opportunity.” Sandlin is having a career year out of the bullpen, but hasn’t pitched more than 1 2/3 inning in a game this season. Allen’s last start proved to to be the shortest of his career.
He allowed seven runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings against the Rockies on May 29. This year the opposition is hitting .385 (10 for 26) and .
375 (12 for 32), respectively, in the first two innings of his.
