Pirates’ series opener vs. Reds rained out
CINCINNATI (AP) — Nobody minded sitting this one out.
Steady rain forced the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds to postpone the opening game of their series Friday night, giving the two ailing teams an extra day to get healthy.
The game was called off 18 minutes after it was supposed to start. Rain moved in late afternoon and was forecast to continue well into the night. The game wasn’t immediately rescheduled.
The Pirates planned to skip Jeff Karstens, who was Friday’s scheduled starter, and stay in order for the rest of the series, with left-hander Paul Maholm starting today’s game. Right-hander Johnny Cueto, who was the Reds’ starter on Friday, will pitch the second game in place of Micah Owings, who goes into the bullpen for the next few days.
Both teams have encountered challenging weather in the opening week. The Reds lost to the Mets 2-1 in their opener on Monday, when freezing rain fell on a 37-degree afternoon. The Pirates opened with a 6-4 win in St. Louis, where it was 41 degrees.
The last thing they needed was a night of standing out in the rain.
Both teams were hit by a virus that went around Florida during spring training. The Pirates had several players sidelined the last three weeks, and some of them are still trying to catch up.
Right-hander Ian Snell, who came down with a severe case of the flu during the final week of spring training, said he had his first full meal on Thursday night. The illness left him incapacitated for several days.
“I’ve never felt like that in my life,” Snell said before Friday’s game was postponed. “I really got sick. That was the worst.”
Snell is scheduled to start the final game of the series Sunday in Cincinnati.
First baseman Adam LaRoche missed Thursday’s game because he was sick, but manager John Russell had planned to use him on Friday. Much of Russell’s time the last couple of weeks has been spent figuring out how long his sick players will be sidelined and what they’ll have to do to catch up.
“There was two different kinds (of illness),” Russell said. “Some guys got it where it knocked them down for six or seven days, and some guys got it where it was 24-48 hours.”
Add Russell to the ailing list.
The 48-year-old manager had his left elbow cleaned out at a Cincinnati hospital on Friday. The elbow began to swell about 10 days ago, caused by the gout, and was getting worse. He had hoped to have it treated when the Pirates returned home for their opener on Monday.