Night after lengthy delay, St. Louis rained out
Cards' opener with Giants to be made up as split doubleheader on Saturday
ST. LOUIS -- Inclement weather continued to plague the Cardinals this week, as Friday night's series opener with the Giants was postponed.
The game will be made up Saturday at 12:15 p.m. CT as part of a split doubleheader at Busch Stadium. Saturday's regularly scheduled game will remain at 6:15 p.m. Fans can use their tickets for Friday night's game for admittance into Saturday's early game.
The Cardinals' rotation will remain in place as Shelby Miller, who was scheduled to start Friday, will pitch at 12:15, and Adam Wainwright will start at 6:15 as planned. The Giants' starters will also remain the same, with Matt Cain pitching the early game and Madison Bumgarner starting in the evening.
A tornado watch for the St. Louis County was issued shortly after the scheduled 7:15 p.m. start time Friday, and was soon followed by a tornado warning just before 8 p.m.
Thursday night's game with the Royals was extended to nearly eight hours when a four-hour, 32-minute rain delay in the ninth inning prolonged the Cardinals' 4-2 loss. With the Interleague series finale being the last time St. Louis and Kansas City were scheduled to meet this season, the officials were willing to wait out the rain until early Friday morning to avoid the Royals' ninth-inning comeback being wiped off the board, per league rule 4.12(b)(4).
The rule states that when the game is called while an inning is still in progress and the visiting team had taken the lead and the home team had not retaken that lead, the final score is reverted back to the last complete inning. The Cardinals were leading 2-1 after eight innings, before a bullpen collapse handed the Royals a 4-2 lead.
With Friday's game against the Giants being the series opener, there was flexibility to postpone and reschedule the contest this weekend. Saturday's forecast shows scattered thunderstorms, with a 60 percent chance of rain.