Tigers, Giants play ‘awkward’ waiting game before postponement

Detroit News

Detroit — The brand-new clubhouse came in handy for the players during the five-hour rain delay Sunday. They had plenty of amenities to both feed and entertain themselves.

They watched television, they watched movies, they played cards, pingpong — they hung out and waited. All along, right up until the game was officially postponed, they thought they were going to play.

“It was awkward,” Tigers manager AJ Hinch said. “We’re all sort of amateur meteorologists trying to predict what we can or should do. We’re all really good at looking back after the fact and saying what we should’ve done.”

Hinch and Giants manager Gabe Kapler, in conjunction with the umpires and Major League Baseball, met several times throughout the day. It looked like there would be a window to play around 3 or 4 p.m. but the forecast changed.

The weather stayed miserable, but it was dry for about 2½ hours between 2 and 4 p.m. Hinch explained why they didn’t try to start the game.

“The toughest part is starting a game after it’s been delayed from the start,” he said. “You need to get the tarp off. You need to get the water off the field. You need to get the lines lined. The starting pitchers need to warm up. There’s more that goes into it than just, hey, it’s not raining, snap your fingers and get the players on the field.”

Hinch said that while there was no official starting time set, the teams seemed committed to playing around 5 or 6 p.m.

At that point, the Giants found out that they couldn’t push back their flight to Miami. Their pilots were getting on the FAA-mandated timeout. If they didn’t leave at the scheduled time, they weren’t leaving.

Thus, the postponement.

“We did the best we could with the information that we were getting,” Hinch said. “And we were all aligned with what was going on. … But the communication with the players, they were all locked in and ready to play. We kept telling them after each meeting, ‘We’re still going to play, we’re still going to play.’

“And then we told them to go home.”

Around the horn

Miguel Cabrera turned 40 on Tuesday. The Tigers’ social media team put out a series of birthday wishes.  It was also Jake Rogers’ birthday, though his birthday wishes didn’t come out until a few hours later. “Let’s not forget it’s Jake’s birthday, too,” Hinch said. “He and Miggy don’t have the same career or the same track record or the same celebration. But hats off to Jake for being a year older, too. He looks older than Miggy with that mustache.” Rogers turned 28.

chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @cmccosky

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