BALTIMORE -- With showers due to persist throughout the day and with four series between the teams remaining, Sunday’s finale between the Orioles and Rays was postponed due to inclement weather.
The game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards will be made up as part of a split-admission doubleheader July 13, beginning at 1:05 p.m. ET. That day’s second game will begin at 7:05 p.m., as originally planned.
Tickets and prepaid parking passes for Sunday’s postponed game will be automatically honored for the makeup and do not need to be exchanged, the club announced.
Simple, too, is how the rainout affects the Orioles’ pitching plans. Baltimore won’t adjust much except to push all its starters back a day, pegging John Means to start Monday’s home series opener against Boston. Means had been scheduled to oppose Rays opener Ryne Stanek on Sunday, with Tampa Bay expected to call upon lefty Ryan Yarbrough to cover the bulk innings.
Josh Smith is scheduled to make his first start of the season for the Red Sox. Smith has pitched one scoreless inning of relief for the Major League club. Boston is expected to start David Price on Tuesday and Chris Sale on Wednesday, opposite Baltimore righties David Hess and Andrew Cashner, respectively.
For Means, the outing will be his second against the defending World Series champions this season. The rookie southpaw took the loss despite throwing five strong innings at Fenway Park on April 14, a game the Red Sox won 4-0. A spot starter then, Means has since emerged as a rotation fixture for the Orioles and one of their more reliable arms. He is 3-3 with a 2.81 ERA across eight appearances overall, thanks in large part to a swing-and-miss changeup that has quickly become his signature pitch.
Means has elicited more whiffs with the change than any left-hander in baseball this season, in 10 fewer innings than any of the next seven southpaws on the list. That group includes All-Stars like Price, Cole Hamels and the Rangers’ Mike Minor.
This is the third postponement for the Orioles this season. They were also rained out April 19 against the Twins at Camden Yards and Tuesday in Chicago. They are 1-3 in doubleheader games so far in 2019.