Sunday Rainy Sunday: Scheduled Bullpen Game Called Due to Rain

The 59th anniversary of the New York Mets first contest in franchise history bore some parallels to that inaugural game.

A matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 11, 1962 at Busch Stadium I - an 11-4 loss highlighted by a 3-3 day from Mr. Cardinal himself Stan Musial - the baseball-reference page for this game showed a game time temperature of 55 degrees and field conditions that simply read as “soaked.”

Fast-forward 59 years to the day, and the Sunday matchup against the Miami Marlins - coincidentally featuring game time weather of 59 degrees - made it 0.1 innings of the way through the top of the first before the tarps were called, resulting in a rain delay.

Per manager Don Mattingly, Miami was slated to start reliever John Curtiss in the go-away day for this series. Curtiss, exclusively a reliever for the duration of his career, would be making his 4th career start today, appearing the opener 3 times for the revolutionary Tampa Bay Rays in 2020. Curtiss allowed 6 hits and 2 runs (1 earned) in those 3 starts for Tampa, with the team going 3-0 in those said games.

Some two-and-a-half hours after first baseman Jesús Aguilar ran the count to 2-0 against Marcus Stroman - himself making his first career regular season start against the Marlins - the game would be called due to rain, already the Mets 4th postponed game of the season. New York, who were scheduled to open the season against the last full-season World Series winners, the Washington Nationals, had the series postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak that landed 10 players on the IL.

Per the Marlins Twitter account, the game will be made-up as part of a split double header on August 31st, with the second contest being a seven-inning affair.

Miami now head to Atlanta to begin a four game series against the Braves. This presents the first meeting between the two clubs since the National League Division Series, where Atlanta swept the Marlins in 3 games.

Sandy Alcantara will make his third start of the season Monday, hoping to continue where’s he left off thus far. In two starts to open the 2021 season, Alcantara has a 1.50 ERA and is a big reason why Miami’s 2.01 ERA was tops among NL starters entering play Sunday.