White Sox host party, show up late, ask guests to leave

Mariners lose bats in tarp, drop snoozer in Chicago

Some teams have hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to keep their appointments. Some teams have a tarp.

The Mariners lost 1-0 to the White Sox on Tuesday in a game that started late due to weather. The Mariners managed just four hits and wasted them with three popouts, two double plays, and a TOOTBLAN. The game was boring and uneventful, save for some shenanigans in the dugout and the stands.

The real story of the game, of course, was that it was played at all. The weather across the midwest has been miserable, with frigid temperatures, heavy rain, and gusting winds. The National Weather Service reported “all severe hazards will be possible” in the Chicago area, with tornado warnings in the region south of the stadium. With similarly bad weather slated for the getaway day on Wednesday, and with no obvious opportunity to make up the game later in the season, the teams waited for the rain to let up, squeegeed the tarp off the field, and delivered the first pitch about 90 minutes late.

This is only an issue at some stadiums. It’s not an issue in Seattle because T-Mobile Park has a roof. Here are the percent of pitches thrown in the rain at each stadium, from 2021 to 2024.

Five of the top six stadiums on the list have a roof, because the roof keeps the rain from reaching the field, which allows the teams to play baseball, in reasonable conditions, according to the schedule. The other venue near the top of the list is Fenway Park, which was built before roofs were invented. The three other venues with roofs show up lower on the list because their roofs were built for different reasons. Those are in Phoenix (heat), Arlington (heat), and Toronto (Canadians).

Teams without a roof tend to have more weather delays and postponements, because there isn’t a structure preventing weather from reaching the field. Teams without a roof have a few games postponed each year, while teams with a roof rarely inconvenience their fans and opponents.

Near the top of the list are the White Sox. They tend to have four or five home games postponed each year due to weather. I couldn’t figure out how many other games (like Tuesday’s) simply started late, but I imagine the pattern is similar. It’s hard not to look sideways at this, given how much we’ve learned recently about the environment’s impact on baseball. No park has played colder this year than Rate Field, and it’s significantly suppressed fly ball distance in the early going. The loss can’t be blamed on the weather or the late start, but it’s worth pointing out the White Sox came into the series with a -1 run differential at home (nearly respectable) and a -52 run differential on the road (a pythag worse than their “worst ever” squad last season). The Red Sox and Astros both dropped series in Chicago this year under similarly chilly skies.

Still, both teams played in the same stadium. To the extent the weather impacted the game, it probably helped Mariners pitchers, who were quite effective. Mariners pitchers allowed just one run and one walk while striking out eight. Casey Legumina pitched as the opener and was fine; Casey Lawrence followed in bulk and was fine — Lawrence gave up two barreled fly outs that might have been hits on another day. Carlos Vargas and Gabe Speier each pitched more than fine to give the Mariners offense a chance late.

But the offense squandered the opportunity. The Mariners loaded the bases in the eighth with a double, a hit by pitch and a walk. Mitch Garver then struck out looking on a middle-middle bender, and Julio hit a weak fly out to end the threat. As annoying as the mid-west weather situation can be, most of the Mariners hard contact came on the ground, and there weren’t any obvious “that should have been a homer” moments in the game. Weather can alter pitch movements and “true talent,” of course, so it’s never a simple counterfactual. But the Mariners lineup played worse than the White Sox, and they lost. That’s baseball.

The weather for Wednesday’s finale looks similarly bad, with temperatures in the low 50’s, wind gusts up to 20 mph, and likely rain. Neither team can hide from it. The Mariners will need to play better to avoid dropping the series.