Texans, Astros and other local teams cope.
Mets series also might move to Tropicana Field
The historic flooding in Houston caused by Tropical Storm Harvey will displace the Astros for at least three games and most likely the entire six-game homestand they had scheduled for this week.
For at least their threegame series against the Texas Rangers that begins Tuesday, the Astros will play as the home team at the domed Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., home to the Tampa Bay Rays, MLB announced Monday. Their three-game series against the New York Mets that starts Friday also likely will shift to Tropicana Field, though no final determination was made Monday.
Tuesday and Wednesday’s games are scheduled to begin at 6:10 p.m., and Thursday’s series finale is set for a 12:10 p.m. start. Each of the Astros’ games this week will be televised by AT&T SportsNet Southwest and aired on the radio on 790 AM. ESPN also will televise Wednesday’s game nationally.
If the Astros remain in the Tampa area through the weekend, they will depart from there Sunday for their previously scheduled three-city West Coast road trip. Including their series last weekend in Anaheim, Calif., they will have played 19 consecutive games away from Houston before their next game at Minute Maid Park on Sept. 15.
The Astros were set to fly Monday night to Tampa from Dallas, where they spent much of Monday in a holding pattern at an Irving hotel. The Rays, who this week are in Kansas City and Chicago as they conclude a
three-city Midwest trip, don’t play their next home game until Sept. 4.
“The safety of our fans, players and staff remains our main priority,” Astros president of business operations Reid Ryan said in a statement.
“We are extremely grateful to the Tampa Bay Rays organization for allowing us to use their facility. We’ll make a decision on this weekend’s series vs. the Mets in the upcoming days as we continue to monitor the conditions. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the hurricane.”
In a follow-up interview with the Chronicle, Ryan said the Astros probably would know by Wednesday where they will play this weekend’s series against the Mets.
“With the release of the reservoirs that they’re having and the fact that it’s rained here a lot, I think the chances are probably high that we stay in Tampa (this weekend),” Ryan said in a telephone interview from Houston.
“But if this system moves to the east and it stops raining, could the water get through downtown in time for us to play Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Yeah, it could happen. But it really is going to have to stop raining by (Tuesday) probably midday, and I’m not sure that’s going to happen at this point.”
Although it would seem more logical for the AstrosRangers series to simply be played in Arlington, swapping home series presented logistical challenges that apparently couldn’t be overcome.
Rangers decline flip
The Astros offered flipping this week’s home series for their scheduled visit to Arlington on Sept. 25-27, but the Rangers declined. The Rangers offered to put on a series at Globe Life Park as the visitors with the Astros getting all revenue, Texas general manager Jon Daniels told Dallas-area media. The Astros declined that alternative.
“We didn’t think that playing six games in Arlington was fair to the competitive balance of the wild-card race, not to mention that if we’re not able to play our games in Houston against the Mets that we would be having another trip,” Ryan told the Chronicle. “So we felt like getting out of Texas and going to a neutral site was in the best interest of our players and in the best interests for the integrity of the schedule this year.”
In addition to St. Petersburg, St. Louis was another option as a neutral site for Astros-Rangers.
Rain from Harvey also might have threatened games in Arlington. In that event, the Astros and Rangers’ only mutual off day for a potential makeup game would have been Sept. 18, the last day off in the regular season for both teams. Eliminating that would have ensured 24 consecutive game days to end the season for both teams.
Another likely factor from the Rangers’ perspective was that a home-series swap would have put them on the road for 12 consecutive games from Sept. 15-27.
Having run away with the American League West, the Astros are playing for home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the postseason. At 79-51, they are five games ahead of the Cleveland Indians for the best record in the AL. The Rangers (64-66) are three games back of the second AL wild-card spot, with five teams ahead of them in a muddled seven-team race.
2008 precedent
There is precedent for teams playing at a neutral site. For Houston fans, this switch recalls September 2008, when two of three scheduled games between the Astros and Chicago Cubs were moved from Minute Maid Park to Milwaukee’s Miller Park because of Hurricane Ike. The third game was postponed until the day after the scheduled regular-season finale but never played because the Astros had been eliminated from contention.
Those “home games” in Milwaukee went miserably for the Astros, who were no-hit by Carlos Zambrano on Sept. 14 and managed only one hit in another loss Sept. 15. The defeats marked the start of a five-game losing streak that sank the Astros’ hopes at claiming the National League wild card.
These Astros have only one other homestand in September — nine games in 10 days against the Seattle Mariners, Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels from Sept. 15-24. Their other 23 games will be away from Minute Maid Park, presuming the storm keeps them on the road for this weekend’s series.
“From a travel standpoint, it’s tough. But if you’re being honest with yourselves, it pales in comparison to what people are going through in Houston,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “You have to keep it in perspective. It’s sad not because we have to travel but because of the catastrophe that this storm has done to Houston.”