ANAHEIM -- The Angels’ scheduled game against the Twins on Wednesday was postponed due to unplayable field conditions at Angel Stadium, marking just the third postponed game at the stadium dating back to 1995.
The game will be made up on Thursday at 1 p.m. PT, as both teams had a mutual off-day. Right-hander Matt Harvey is scheduled to start for the Angels, while lefty Martin Perez is slated to start for the Twins.
The game was scheduled to be played at 6:07 p.m. PT and heavy rain stopped roughly an hour before game time. But there were issues draining the outfield, and after representatives from both teams met in the outfield to discuss the conditions, the game was cancelled.
Among those who walked out to check the playing conditions in the outfield were Angels president John Carpino, Angels manager Brad Ausmus, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey. Stadium workers used squeegees and other methods to try to get the grass to dry but it remained too wet to play.
"There was just too much water in the outfield," Ausmus said. "As they moved the water around, it seems to disappear. You don’t see the puddling but when you stepped on it, it would just come up around your shoe. I couldn’t imagine fielding a ball coming through that water, picking it up soaking wet and trying to make a throw to a base, never mind what could happen if your cleats didn’t catch.”
Baldelli didn't necessarily agree and thought that the game could "probably" have been played on Wednesday night. With that said, he respected the decision, acknowledging that as the visiting team, the Twins did not have a say in the matter, and said that he appreciated the level of communication afforded by the Angels' organization and the grounds crew.
"I can’t say I concurred, but it’s not always the easiest call in situations like this," Baldelli said. "We probably played a few games this year similar to what we would have been playing on in the outfield. Everyone can make their own call at that point.
"It was clear that it was not a clearly unplayable field and it was not a clearly, clearly playable field. There was some sort of gray area where we were sitting."
Kyle Gibson, the Twins' player representative, said that he would have preferred the game be played on Wednesday night, and felt after his conversations with Angels players -- including Angels player representative Andrew Heaney, Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun and Jonathan Lucroy -- that the Angels were upset that the makeup game on Thursday removed their only off-day until June 12.
"When I walked over there, I literally was like, 'Hey, listen. Ideally, we would like to play tomorrow,'" Gibson said. "And they said, 'Ideally, we would not like to play tomorrow because it's going to be our only off-day for three weeks."
It's the 17th home rainout in Angels history -- the 12th at Angel Stadium -- and the first at Angel Stadium since July 19, 2015, vs. Boston. Prior to the postponed game in 2015, the previous rainout at home was June 16, 1995, against the White Sox.
“It didn’t make a lot of sense to push back the start time because the water’s not going anywhere," Ausmus said. "The sun’s down. There’s no evaporation. It’s just sitting there. As it was explained to me, we could move the water around but we could do that until midnight, it’s not going to change how much water’s there. It really just takes some time to soak all the way in.”
Fans with tickets to the game can use their May 22 game tickets to attend the make-up game on Thursday, or exchange their tickets for a future regular season home game. Fans can visit www.angels.com or call 714-4ANGELS for more details.