Reds' rainout presents scheduling dilemma

CINCINNATI -- The Reds on Friday were still determining options to make up Thursday's rained-out series finale against the Giants. The teams' afternoon game was called after a two-hour, 21-minute delay. There later proved to be a window where the game could possibly have been played.

The Giants, on the final day of a road trip, were not in favor of sticking around to play a night game Thursday. MLB vice president of scheduling and club relations Katy Feeney said there were conversations about the situation with the Giants, adding that San Francisco was "obviously, as any team would be, not happy" with having to wait around under the circumstances.

The problem, for both teams, is that the options for a rescheduled game are less than optimal.

"There are no easy solutions," Reds manager Dusty Baker said Friday.

The teams' only common off-day is Aug. 29 -- in the middle of a Reds road trip from St. Louis to Colorado. The day for the Giants is between road series at Colorado and Arizona.

"Not good," Feeney said Friday afternoon. "I haven't really discussed with Cincinnati what they, as the home team, might want to do. There is one mutual off-day in August. But both teams are on the road, so that would mean additional travel and that they would play 34 consecutive days."

That would be 10 days over the limit for both teams when a scheduling revision is in effect.

"We'd have to OK it with both teams and the union at the same time," Baker said. "When you're out of gas that late in the year, you don't get gas back until the off-season."

It is highly possible the game could be played Sept. 30, after the regular season concludes but before the start of the postseason. That would happen if the game had meaning for one or both clubs trying to make the playoffs or for seeding purposes in the postseason.

"It would be better to just not need it at the end of the year and start the playoffs; that would be perfect," Baker said.

One highly unlikely option floated by Giants skipper Bruce Bochy was that the makeup game be played at Coors Field because both teams would be coming or going to Colorado on Aug. 29.

Another option could be a day-night doubleheader at AT&T Park, where the Reds would be the home club.

Feeney noted that having games played at their originally scheduled sites is MLB's "first priority."