Mets-Red Sox series opener suspended by rain; pseudo-doubleheader set for Saturday
The Fenway Park grounds crews pulls out a tarp during a rain delay in the fourth inning of a game between the Red Sox and the Mets on Friday in Boston. Credit: AP/Michael Dwyer
BOSTON — The Mets and Red Sox will play a pseudo-doubleheader Saturday after an extended downpour caused their series opener to be suspended Friday night.
They’ll resume play at 2:10 p.m., picking up where they left off: The Mets ahead 4-3 with one out in the bottom of the fourth and Boston’s Alex Verdugo at the plate in a 1-and-2 count.
Then the teams will play the regularly scheduled game at 7:10 p.m. — pushed back from the original 4:10 p.m. A reason for that change: The Red Sox will be able to get two separate crowds paying for two separate sets of tickets in the ballpark.
The Mets will finish the first game by using the bullpen. Max Scherzer still is set for the nightcap. Both clubs will get to add a 27th man for the second game.
In the partial game Friday, Kodai Senga allowed three runs in 3 1⁄3 innings. Two came on Yu Chang’s two-out double in the second inning. A routine flyout in most ballparks, it became a Fenway Park knock when it scraped against the Green Monster in leftfield.
“Some people in the clubhouse said, ‘Welcome to the big leagues,’ ” Senga said through an interpreter. “My first thought: He was jammed and he might be out. My second thought: It got to me that we’re playing at Fenway, so I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”
The Mets erased an early three-run deficit via two-run home runs by Brandon Nimmo and Daniel Vogelbach off Red Sox righthander Kutter Crawford (four innings). Manager Buck Showalter said he joked with them that all offensive statistics from the suspended game would be erased — briefly drawing concerned looks from the homer hitters — but that is not the case.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
