Indians, Padres will play twice Wednesday

Associated Press

cleveland

Corey Kluber’s got a cloud hanging over him so far this season.

And it’s already opened up twice.

For the second time in a week, Cleveland’s right-hander had a start postponed because of rain as Monday’s interleague series opener between the Indians and San Diego Padres was washed out.

With steady rains falling at Progressive Field and the forecast for more showers and no window to play, the Indians announced the postponement less than two hours before the scheduled opening pitch.

The teams will play a traditional doubleheader on Wednesday with the first game scheduled to begin at 12:05 p.m. The second game will start 20 minutes after the conclusion of the opener.

Last week, Kluber’s season debut in Oakland was postponed as the Athletics were rained out for the first time since 1998. The Indians and A’s made up the rainout the following day with a day-night doubleheader, the earliest doubleheader in baseball history, according to STATS.

So, is this Kluber’s fault?

“I don’t know if you can blame this one on Klubes,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “It seems like there is always a pitcher, though, who catches it.”

Kluber, incidentally, was drafted by the Padres in 2007.

Because the Padres are not scheduled to come back to Cleveland again this season due to the interleague format, the Indians decided to make up the postponement as soon as possible rather than push it back to a later date.

“This is obviously the only time we’ll play San Diego so it makes sense to play and not have them flying back on some other day off,” Francona said. “It’s too easy to put it off until later and all of a sudden there’s a lot of laters. So I think making it up now makes sense.”