Brrr! Indians play coldest game in ballpark’s history

CLEVELAND — The temperature was 32 degrees, the lowest for the start of a game in the 25-year history of Progressive Field, when starter Cleveland Mike Clevinger threw the first pitch to Kansas City’s Jon Jay on Sunday.

The previous record was 33 degrees for games against Toronto on April 5 and April 7, 1996.

Neither club took batting practice, and players on both teams were bundled up when they came on the field. Several wore hoods under their caps to try to stay warm to combat the frigid conditions, which have been fairly common throughout Major League Baseball in the season’s first two weeks.

The Royals have already had two games postponed due to weather.

Saturday’s temperature was 34 at first pitch, and the game’s only run came on Lucas Duda’s seventh-inning homer off Trevor Bauer. The teams combined for nine hits, and Royals starter Ian Kennedy said the ball felt like an ice cube before he rubbed it up.

According to records kept by the Indians dating to 1970, the lowest game-time temperature at Municipal Stadium, the club’s home on Lake Erie until 1993, was 32 degrees on April 7, 1979. Cleveland’s Rick Waits pitched a one-hit shutout that day against Boston, with Jerry Remy getting the only Red Sox hit.

Meantime, the series finale between the Seattle Mariners and the Minnesota Twins was postponed Sunday because of wintry weather.

With snow in the forecast and game-time temperatures expected to hover around freezing, the game was called off about three hours before it was supposed to begin and rescheduled for May 14, what had been a mutual day off for both teams. The Mariners had not been scheduled to return to Minnesota this season.

The two teams played through the coldest outdoor Twins game in Minnesota history Saturday when the first pitch was thrown in 27-degree weather. Seattle beat Minnesota 11-4.

“It was freezing,” Mariners outfielder Dee Gordon said after the game. “I was getting picked on a lot of the time for having a hoodie on. Then we went out, and everybody on their team had a hoodie on. I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t feel so bad.’”