Smoky Seattle skies force move of Giants series to Oracle.
After postponement, GiantsMariners in S.F.
Monday’s doubleheader between the A’s and Mariners should not have been played in Seattle’s smokechoked air. Thanks to some rethinking that was much clearer than the skies around TMobile Park, Major League Baseball did not make that mistake again with the Giants in town.
With the air quality deteriorating from wildfires in the Northwest, Tuesday night’s GiantsMariners matchup was postponed and the twogame series moved to San Francisco. The teams will play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon with Seattle as the home team in both and batting last.
The decision to shift the short series to Oracle Park was made after discussions among the league, Giants, Mariners, the Players Association and public health officials in Seattle.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said some of his players expressed concern about taking the field Tuesday, particularly after A’s players com
plained about having to play twice Monday with an airquality index in the 280s, which is considered “unhealthy,” bordering on “dangerous.”
“One of the things I do and the players do and our staff, we pay attention to what other clubs are saying and want to learn as much as we can about other experiences,” Kapler said. “We certainly read what A’s players had to say and took those comments into consideration.
“Ultimately, our job is to make decisions on behalf of the Giants, but we always consider what the players are thinking about, and it was on their minds.”
Jesús Luzardo, who started Game 1 for the A’s on Monday, had the most telling comment.
“When I came out, I think it was 284,” Luzardo said. “I’m a healthy 22yearold. I shouldn’t be gasping for air, I guess you could say, or missing oxygen when I’m kind of getting to the line. So I’ll leave it at that.”
A’s manager Bob Melvin said the air quality seriously affected reliever Joakim Soria, who allowed the tying and goahead runs in the sixth inning of Oakland’s 65 Game 1 loss. Soria walked three in the inning, the last of which forced home the decisive run.
Melvin said the decision to move the GiantsMariners games south “seems to make sense to me. If it’s similar to what it was (Monday), then that’s the proper thing to do. I don’t know what it’s like in the Bay Area, but based on what we’ve played in, that was pretty extreme.”
Kapler said the air Tuesday afternoon looked a little clearer than it did when the Giants flew in Monday night and when they awoke Tuesday morning. But Mariners President and chief operating officer Kevin Mather issued a statement saying local officials expected Seattle’s air to get worse Tuesday and not improve until late Thursday night or Friday morning.
Meanwhile, San Francisco’s air quality has improved because of shifting weather patterns. The index Tuesday afternoon stood at 54, barely above what is deemed good air quality. Wednesday’s forecast was similar.
The (watery) eye test plus the airquality numbers should have led to postponements Monday, but sources said the Mariners and city officials were thrown off by a forecast that predicted the air quality would improve.
One significant issue is that Major League Baseball has no objective airquality standards and has left the decision to the home team in consult with health officials.
The league is in the early stages of developing a policy, according to a source, with no word on when it could be adopted.
The Giants were to fly home at 9:30 p.m. PDT Tuesday on what became their final off day of the regular season.
They will finish with 13 games in 12 days but at least get to sleep in their own beds.
After hosting the Mariners for two, the Giants will play three in Oakland before finishing at Oracle Park with four games each against the Rockies and Padres. The final series will include a doubleheader to make up for one of the two games postponed over the weekend amid a coronavirus scare.
When the Giants take the field Wednesday, they will have played twice in the previous five days, both in San Diego on Sunday. That kind of layoff and the subsequent bunching of games is not ideal, but Kapler said he has stressed to his players the need to roll with whatever this odd season brings.
“Certainly we wanted to get the games in here if there was a safe way to do so,” he said. “We knew there were going to be challenges. We knew there would be situations we haven’t had to deal with in majorleague seasons past. We have to be in good within the construct of whatever the season hands us.” Chronicle staff writers Susan Slusser and Matt Kawahara contributed to
this report.