Two Nights, Two Rain Delays — and the Detroit Tigers Are Paying the Price

Wednesday night brought another rain delay, this time though, the Tigers had already taken the field.

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Framber Valdez | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

Rain happens. This time, though, it could have bigger consequences for the Detroit Tigers. On Tuesday evening at Comerica Park, the Tigers had to endure a nearly two-hour rain delay before finally taking the field and getting the win 10-4 against the Minnesota Twins.

Wednesday night, it happened again, but worse.

A major storm popped up on the radar headed right for Detroit. The call was made to go ahead and start the matchup. Detroit’s star free agency signing Framber Valdez took the mound.

After throwing a scoreless first inning with no hits, one walk and one strikeout, the grounds crew then took over. They rolled out the tarp between the top and bottom of the first. Rain delay.

For Detroit, two consecutive days of rain delays, but Wednesday’s is far more serious than Tuesday.

The $115 Million Man Sitting In the Dugout

Framber Valdez | Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images

While Valdez may not be producing what the Tigers expected him to when they signed a three year $115 million contract, he was producing on Wednesday.

Then the tarp came out.

Now A.J. Hinch is going to have to make the call about how long Valdez can sit and allow his arm to cool down before he is done.

Can Valdez realistically take the field again? If he can’t , the Tigers just burned one of their most important starters on one inning and will have to hand the rest of an important game off to the bullpen.

Now What?

Hopefully the delay won’t last long and Valdez will be able to return, but the bottom line here is that the Twins will have a fresh starter when play resumes.

The decision to start the game with a major storm brewing on the radar seemed to have unevened the playing field, and the Tigers happened to fall on the wrong side of that.

Detroit is sitting 28-39 and 7.5 games back in the AL Central. Every single game at this point is important especially after dropping the ball in May with a dismal 6-22 record.

Every Valdez start matters to this team who is trying to gain back their ground.

It feels like this may have been a preventable situation, but Mother Nature doesn’t always play by the rules.

Rain delays are part of baseball. The home team may have just took the hit on this one.

Hopefully, the Tigers can continue their newfound momentum and take game two of this three-game series.