The final regular season game between the Guardians and Houston Astros was canceled on Sunday after a long delay, which stopped Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez from trying to hit his 40th home run and join the exclusive 40-40 club.
With Houston set to begin its AL wild-card series at home on Tuesday and steady rain expected to continue for several hours, the game never began and was called off after a delay of 3 hours and 5 minutes.
The Guardians ended the season with a record of 92-69, and as the AL Central champions, they will host Game 1 of the AL Division Series on October 5. They will play against either the AL West champion Astros (88-73) or the Detroit Tigers, who secured a wild-card spot.
“We know Detroit very well and obviously just got to know Houston,” said Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt, who has done a great job following the beloved manager Terry Francona. “So we know whoever we end up playing, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”
“It’s an exciting field. All six teams have their strengths, have their weaknesses, and it’s really cool to have three AL Central teams in it.”
Vogt and Houston manager Joe Espada met with the umpiring crew, head groundskeeper, and Guardians’ front office members on the covered field for 15 minutes around 2:20, which was 55 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.
“We had our concerns over safety for our players,” Vogt said. “The field has taken a ton of water over the last three days and that was really the No. 1 thing for us. At the end of the day, we waited until MLB decided we couldn’t go.
“We wanted to play, but we also wanted to be smart, and if the rain isn’t going to stop, we don’t want to put our players out there in a game that has no consequence.”
The loyal fans who stayed inside Progressive Field during the long delay watched the Browns-Las Vegas Raiders game on the giant scoreboard.
