Boston has recently experienced unusually nasty weather for late May — forecasts in the 40s and 50s, with rain and some whipping winds.
The Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox will not play through it. The teams' third meeting of the year, and the second at Fenway Park, has been postponed due to poor weather conditions, first reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The division rivals will play a doubleheader on Friday, May 23, and the games will start at 1:35 p.m. and 7:10 p.m. Tickets for tonight's scheduled contest will be good for admission in tomorrow's afternoon game.
Unfortunately, Friday's forecast isn't looking much better than Thursday's. A rare spring Nor'easter will keep parts of the Boston area gray until Sunday, May 25. The bad weather overlaps with nearly all of the Sox's four-game series against the Orioles.
Baltimore has been one of the most surprising teams in MLB this season, and not in a good way. It arrives in Boston with a 16-32 record, with just one more win than the White Sox. The series could present a perfect opportunity for the Red Sox to shake their recent woes — they haven't logged more than four runs in their last four games and struck out a season-high of 16 times against the Mets on May 21.
May 22 Orioles @ Red Sox game has been postponed due to Nor'easter, will be made up as part of doubleheader on May 23
Cade Povich and Lucas Giolito were slated to take the mound for the O's and the Sox, respectively, on Thursday evening. Povich has logged a 5.23 ERA with 38 strikeouts and 14 walks over 41.1 innings as part of the Orioles' decimated rotation. Giolito has posted a 7.08 ERA with 17 strikeouts and six walks over 20.1 innings in his first four starts back from the internal brace procedure. Giolito will start the second game of Friday's doubleheader and Brayan Bello will start the afternoon game.
Thursday's postponement offers the Sox's bullpen an extra day to recover from its long series against the Mets. Boston ran through its entire 'pen against New York after Walker Buehler was ejected in the third inning of Tuesday's tilt and a surprisingly early exit for Garrett Crochet on Wednesday.
The Red Sox have struggled to perform in bad weather this season, an unfortunate development for a team based in the Northeast. Hopefully, they can right the ship against the struggling Orioles and break their track record of rough performances in even rougher weather.