Diamondbacks Frustrated by MLB's Handling of St. Louis Rainout

The Arizona Diamondbacks knew rain was in the forecast ahead of Thursday's 6:45 p.m. CT matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals — which would have been the finale of a four-game series.

They knew days in advance. In fact, Arizona requested to move the game time up to make it a day game and avoid a rainout. That request was not granted; the game was subsequently rained out and postponed until July 23 — costing both teams an off day.

Manager Torey Lovullo told Arizona Sports 98.7's Burns & Gambo Show that he was "a little bit" bothered that the game was not moved.

"I don't want to clown the Cardinals or Major League Baseball, they work really hard at it, but I think there were a bunch of weather models that told us the story of the game potentially being played a little bit earlier," Lovullo said. "We could have completed it and got on our way down to Tampa, but look, I trust the system. I trust the reasons why."

"It wasn't super clean. It was a little bit frustrating for us on a lot of different levels, but it is what it is. I don't think we had a choice."

Diamondbacks frustrated by St. Louis rainout

Jun 19, 2026; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo against the Minnesota Twins at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Lovullo said "calls were made in all directions from our part" with regard to Thursday's game.

"I don't know where it went. It was well beyond my pay grade, but I know that the questions were asked, and it just really didn't seem to go anywhere."

"We said how we all felt, and they decided to dump the game. ... I feel like they could have made an adjustment a little bit earlier to finish it off and get us going with a day game, but they didn't decide to do that."

This lack of change came just three days following a decision from MLB to change Arizona's upcoming August matchup with the San Francisco Giants to a split doubleheader, in order to accommodate the Giants' need to make up their own rained-out contest. Lovullo said MLB essentially made that decision unilaterally.

"I think we were basically told that's what has to happen," Lovullo said.

But now, the D-backs will have to make a stop in St. Louis on July 23. That day was initially an off day scheduled in between a homestand and an already-lengthy road trip. Now, the D-backs will play in four cities in the span of 10 games at the tail end of July.

Arizona's manager was not the only one perturbed by this, as evidenced by the reaction of generally-positive reliever Paul Sewald. Responses were predictably mixed.

No you’re right thank you @Cardinals for not moving our game up to this afternoon when we politely asked given the whole world knew it was going to rain tonight. I actually was really hoping we could lose an off day and turn it into a 4 city road trip 👍🏻
— Paul Sewald (@ItsPaulSewald) June 26, 2026

On the bright side, the D-backs were able to get into Tampa earlier than if they had played Thursday's game, arriving just before 2:00 a.m. as opposed to 3:00 or 4:00. Still, both the Cardinals and Diamondbacks will have to forfeit an off day in the thick of the summer.

It's not an earth-shattering inconvenience, by any means, though it does seem as if this issue could have been easily avoided. But the game will go on regardless.

"All's well that ends well," Lovullo said. "We're [in Tampa] and ready to play a baseball game."

Add us as a preferred source on Google