Giants-Braves game suspended after 1 1/2 innings
Tuesday’s game between the Braves and Giants at Truist Park was suspended in the bottom of the second due to unplayable field conditions.
There was a lengthy delay between the top and bottom of the second while the grounds crew attempted to dry the infield. Its mission was unsuccessful.
“That stuff wasn’t on the radar. It was supposed to end about game time. It just kept backing up on us. Looking at the forecast and the radar, it looked like we were going to be able to play through some light stuff early, and it would have stopped, and we’d have been fine,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “But you know how it is around here, it’s very unpredictable in Atlanta. These things pop up, or they don’t go away, or whatever. They’re hard to predict.
“It got to the point where the field was getting unplayable. And so the umpires did the right thing. Scott (Beam), head of the grounds crew, did an unbelievable job trying to save that field. And if it had stopped raining at some point, we could have continued. But the fact that it just kept raining, that field wasn’t going to be able to take much more.”
Tuesday’s game is scheduled to resume at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Wednesday’s originally scheduled contest is still scheduled to be played at 7:15 p.m.
Before Tuesday’s game was washed out, Braves starter Grant Holmes found himself in a pickle in the top of the first after a double, single and one-out walk loaded the bases. Holmes escaped by giving up just a single run, a sacrifice fly to center off the bat of Jung Hoo Lee.
Baldwin, in the leadoff spot Tuesday, got that run right back by obliterating a 3-1 sinker a whopping 473 feet to dead center off Giants starter Adrian Houser. Baldwin’s 14th homer of the season was the longest in MLB this season.
Later in the inning, with two outs and runners at first and second, Mauricio Dubón slapped an RBI single to right. It was Dubón’s 13th hit this season with two outs and at least one runner in scoring position.
Holmes didn’t enjoy the lead for too long. A single, walk, strikeout and single loaded the bases for Bryce Eldridge — who walked on six pitches, forcing in a run. The Giants then retook the lead on Matt Chapman’s RBI sacrifice fly on a line drive to center field that a diving Dubón snared, charging toward the infield.
With a steady rain continuing to fall, both teams retreated to the dugout while crew members tried to treat the wet dirt instead of covering the playing surface with the tarp. When the tarp eventually did make its appearance, it was 9:47 p.m., and the game had been called.
“I went out there with full intention to say, ‘Let’s play.’ That’s where my mind was,” Weiss added. “And as we’re standing out there talking about it, because I said, ‘The fields playable right now. We can play.’ It starts picking up again. And then once it starts raining again, the field wasn’t gonna be able to take much more. You can see the dirt start to get shiny again and start to puddle up.”