New chapter joins storm-related history
Tuesday’s Angels-Astros doubleheader, the second in Minute Maid Park’s 21 seasons, added another chapter to the short but memorable list of weatherinfluenced events in Houston’s baseball history.
Major League Baseball moved Thursday’s scheduled game to Tuesday as part of a seveninning doubleheader as Hurricane Laura approached the Gulf Coast. MLB also moved up the Wednesday game to a noon start before announcing its postponement as the storm strengthened.
It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Saturday, Sept. 5, in Anaheim. The Astros will be designated as the home team for the second game of that doubleheader.
Three years ago, the Astros and Mets played two games on Saturday, Sept. 2, the team’s first games at home since Hurricane Harvey brought recordsetting rain to Southeast Texas.
Sept. 1 was a day off that allowed both teams to participate in storm-related relief appearances, and the Astros swept the twin bill by scores of 12-8 and 4-1 before a sparse crowd that included evacuees, volunteer relief workers and first responders.
Those games featured the debut of the “Houston Strong” uniform patch that the Astros wore throughout their run to the 2017 World Series championship.
Prior to their return, the Astros and Rangers played three games scheduled for Houston in Tampa, where Houston lost two of three in a series that still prompts ill feelings among some Astros fans because of the Rangers’ refusal to switch the Astros’ home games with a scheduled three-game series in Arlington in late September.
The Astros, for the record, swept the three games in Arlington in late September by a combined score of 37-7.
In 2008, Hurricane Ike forced the postponement of two games between the Astros and Cubs that were moved to Milwaukee, the hometown of Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, less than a hundred miles from Chicago.
The Astros were no-hit by Cubs pitcher Carlos Zambrano on Sept. 14 at Miller Park, losing 5-0, and were held to one hit Sept. 15 in a 6-1 loss. They lost five of their next seven to fall out of contention for a wild card playoff berth.
Despite its roof, Minute Maid Park is not waterproof, as rain occasionally finds its way around the baffles that are located between the retractable roof sections.
On May 9, 2019, as most of Houston was soaked by more than three inches of rain, drenched fans fled for cover in some portions of right field view deck as rain poured into the ballpark.
The most uniquely Houston of all weather-related incidents, however, occurred on June 15, 1976, when a game between the Astros and Pirates was postponed because fans, security officers, concession workers and the umpires were unable to make it through flooded streets to the Astrodome.
Players and some team employees made it to the ballpark and shared a meal on the field after the game was postponed, according to Astros historian Mike Acosta.
Springer sits out with elbow bruise
Astros outfielder George Springer did not play during the team’s Tuesday doubleheader against the Angels as he recovers from being hit in the left elbow by a pitch Monday night.
Manager Dusty Baker said Springer could have been used on defense or to pinch run, but an injured funny bone, he added, is no laughing matter for a hitter.
“Have you ever been hit in the elbow?” the manager said. “It’s like a rusty hinge. You don’t want to get hit in the elbow. You talk about crazy bone or funny bone or whatever it is. It’s not funny, but it is crazy.
“It doesn’t heal very quickly, so it’s like a rusty hinge. It won’t bend, and in hitting you have to have a bend in your arm and get extended.”
Springer twice went to his knees after taking a 95 mph fastball off the elbow from Angels reliever Jacob Barnes. X-rays taken after he was lifted for a pinch runner showed no damage beyond a bruise that Baker said likely will linger for a few days.
Corpus Christi site in operation again
The Astros’ alternate training site at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi resumed operations Tuesday after a brief shutdown following a positive COVID-19 test by what the team said was an unidentified person using the facility.
Astros general manager James Click said Saturday that the Astros’ big league roster and traveling party were not compromised by the positive test, based on contact tracing results.
Players working out in Corpus Christi include infielder Aledmys Diaz and pitchers Chris Devenski, Jose Urquidy and Brad Peacock.
Manager Dusty Baker said the ballclub was hoping that some of the veterans would be returning this week to the major league club, but that the brief shutdown would delay their return.
Baker watching California fires
While he keeps a wary eye on the approach of Hurricane Laura, Astros manager Dusty Baker also is concerned about friends affected by the wildfires in Northern California.
More than 600 fires are burning across California, including three significant blazes in the San Francisco area, and have consumed more than a million acres and shrouded parts of the state in smoke and soot. At least seven people have been killed, and about 170,000 have been evacuated.
“It’s a bad scene, a bad situation and I’m praying for the people of California and hoping we don’t have a similar scenario that we’ve had in the past,” Baker said.
As for Laura’s approach to the Gulf Coast, Baker said, “There’s devastation all over the world. I just hope Houston gets through this without this hurricane tearing up everything.”