The Detroit Tigers won the first game of their series against the New York Mets on Monday night.
Mother Nature was the unquestioned winner the next two days.
After consecutive postponements due to non-stop rain in the New York area, the Mets and Tigers are slated to complete their three-game series with a doubleheader Thursday afternoon.
The first game will start at 12:10 p.m. and the second game will follow 30 minutes after the final out of the opener.
The Tigers remained perfect — and kept the Mets winless — by scoring five runs in the 10th inning Monday to earn a 5-0 victory.
Right-hander Casey Mize (did not pitch in 2023), who was slated to start Tuesday before being pushed back to Wednesday, will start the first game Thursday for the Tigers. Fellow right-hander Matt Manning (5-4, 3.58 ERA in 2023) will start the second game after being recalled from Triple-A Toledo to serve as the 27th man.
Mets right-hander Adrian Houser (8-5, 4.12 ERA in 2023), who was also scheduled to start Tuesday and Wednesday, will start the opener. New York has not announced a starter for the second game, though Jose Butto is a candidate if he is recalled from Triple-A Syracuse as the 27th man.
The scheduled second game of the series was postponed around 9 p.m. Tuesday, even though the forecast was beginning to clear up a bit following a two-hour delay. It was initially rescheduled for Thursday at 1:10 p.m.
With New York being pelted by wind and rain, the scheduled game Wednesday was postponed about six hours before the 7:10 p.m. first pitch.
The postponements cost both teams an off day and will create a chaotic weekend for a pair of squads off to decidedly different starts. The Tigers, with their best start since opening 6-0 in 2015, haven’t posted a winning season since 2016 and are scheduled to play their home opener Friday afternoon against the Oakland Athletics.
“Nobody needs to feel sorry for us,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before Tuesday’s game was postponed. “We will be at the park when we need to be and we will find a home when we need to.”
New York, which lost its first four games for the first time since the 2005 team began 0-5, is slated to begin its first road trip Friday with the opener of a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds.
The Mets then play four games against the defending National League East champion Atlanta Braves, against whom they went 3-10 last year.
“Obviously we’re dealing with some weather now that affects … some of the planning we’re talking about,” first-year Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Tuesday.
Mize won a rotation spot by going 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA in six spring training games (five starts). He last appeared in a professional game on April 14, 2022, one day before he was placed on the injured list with a right elbow sprain.
Mize underwent Tommy John surgery two months later and also had back surgery later that summer.
Neither Mize nor Manning have opposed the Mets.
Houser, who spent the first seven seasons of his big-league career with the Milwaukee Brewers before the Mets acquired him Dec. 20, 2023, is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in three career games (two starts) against the Tigers.
-Field Level Media