Yesterday, Chad Tracy announced that Ranger Suarez would come off the IL and make tonight’s start against the Orioles as the club goes for its franchise record tying 15th straight win. However, as of this afternoon, there’s been a change of plans.
The good news is this doesn’t appear to be injury related.
That reasoning is obviously fishy. The club easily could’ve known they wanted to give Suarez an extra day after pushing him the last few when they announced his start last night. Instead, the real reason they’re pushing this start back is likely because of weather, which threatens to upend tonight’s game at Fenway Park. Here’s what the latest HRRR model is showing in a simulated radar from 5:00pm to just after midnight:
The general trend here will be thunderstorms all over the place early in the evening, and then then a gradual thinning in their coverage as they slowly fall apart the deeper we go into the night. It will almost certainly rain, and rain heavy, but it won’t rain all night long, so there’s a shot they get this game in late if they push it.
Knowing this uncertainty, the Sox probably think it’s a better idea to go with a bullpen game started by Rivera with Brayan Bello backing him up. It takes Suarez out of the messy weather, it gives the other starters more rest when Suarez does slot back in, and it also means that any potential starts and stoppages within the game won’t impact the Sox as much because they’re largely going with a bullpen game anyway.
We could be an incredibly whacky night at the ballpark given all the dynamics in play between the pitching, the weather, and the win streak. Stay tuned!
