Rangers Lose In New York Rain

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NEW YORK — While inspecting the area around first base Wednesday after a heavy downpour, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi and Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington joked that if they combined their injured players it might form a really good team.

So when they noticed that part of the field at Yankee Stadium had not dried off sufficiently after more than an hour, they wanted to see whether the game could resume and did not want to risk any more injuries.

After a delay of one hour and 49 minutes, the game was called with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Yankees had a 2-1 win.

Brett Gardner hit a solo home run in the third inning off Yu Darvish and David Phelps pitched a five-inning complete game for his fourth straight victory.

The Yankees had announced that play was going to resume at 10:05, but when Girardi and Washington began inspecting the field, they stopped near first base and alerted the umpires that they felt the field was not safe.

“We made a joke that you put the two teams together on the DL, you could form a pretty good team,” Girardi said. “And neither one of us can really afford anyone else to go on the DL because of conditions (on the field).”

Washington said, “It wasn’t playable to us, so we tried to get the grounds crew to find out what we

could do to make it playable. The only confusion is we didn’t finish the game. The field wasn’t playable.”

Twenty-two minutes after the announced restart time, the tarp was put back on the field. A few minutes later, crew chief Dale Scott and third base umpire Quinn Wolcott consulted with Major League Baseball’s offices in New York and then called the game.

“Both managers had a concern about (injuries),” Scott said. “Then again, as we were dealing with that trying to make a decision on if we could get that fixed … the rain started coming again and we had to tarp it again.

“So the field was just not playable. They did a heckuva job trying to get it back and I praise them for that, but it just wasn’t going to happen. There was just too much water and too much of a downpour before they could get that tarp on to overcome it.”

The Yankees played their second rain-shortened game of the season, but this time they had their 11th win in 17 games. This win came 10 days after a 3-1 loss in Baltimore that was called in the top of the fifth after a delay of two hours and 22 minutes.

“That’s kind of the same thing we had in Baltimore,” Phelps said. “They got the tarp on. Mother Nature is on our side.”

The game was delayed with one out in the fifth and New York catcher Francisco Cervelli on second following his second double of the game. Right before Gardner stepped in for his third at-bat, a heavy downpour accompanied the thunder and lightning that had started a few minutes earlier.

After play stopped at 8:46, the grounds crew struggled to get the tarp on the field. It took 13 minutes to cover the field and members of the grounds crew needed assistance from some clubhouse attendants, security guards and bat boys.

“I’ve seen it happen,” Girardi said. “I was at Wrigley where they could only get half of it on and they never got it on. Sometimes storms are more than what they thought. What we were told was it would be rain and we might be able to play through it. All of sudden it just downpoured. The grounds crew just physically couldn’t get the tarp on. It becomes too heavy. It’s heavy by itself, but then once you pile rain on, it’s impossible.”

Before the delay, the Yankees scored twice in the third against Texas right-hander Darvish (9-6). They tied it when Darvish slightly moved his shoulder after a 1-0 pitch to Gardner and was charged with a balk. They took the lead when Gardner drove a 3-1 fastball into the right-field seats for his 10th home run.

Phelps (5-4) allowed one run and five hits. He stranded left fielder Leonys Martin on third after a one-out triple by retiring catcher Chris Gimenez and striking out second baseman Rougned Odor, whose double-play grounder in the third gave Texas a 1-0 lead.

“It’s a big moment, especially (because) we were up 2-1 on Darvish, who doesn’t give up two runs that often,” Phelps said. “It’s one of those times that you can’t really (allow a walk).”

Darvish allowed two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings. He told Washington that he could have returned if the delay had lasted less than two hours.