Indians and A’s Postponed

Apr 1, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; A member of the Oakland Athletics field crew sweep rain off the tarp after the game between the Athletics and the Cleveland Indians was postponed due to rain. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

Indians and A’s Will Play a Doubleheader Today

For the first time since the 1998 season, a game was postponed due to rain in Oakland. Talk about an April Fool’s joke. As a result, the Indians and A’s will be forced to play the first doubleheader of the season later today. That’s right, folks. We get not one, but two baseball games today. That is a win.

Game one will featured the original match-up that had been scheduled for Tuesday night. Corey Kluber will make his 2014 regular season debut against former Indian Scott Kazmir. It’s the reunion everybody had been looking forward to. In his first start following his reclamation project year of 2013, Kazmir was anxious to get on the mound against the team that breathed new life into his baseball career. First pitch for game one is scheduled to take place at 3:35 PM Eastern time.

Meanwhile, game two will feature a match-up between the Indians’ Zach McAllister and the mysterious pitcher commonly referred to as TBD for the A’s. For McAllister, he will be on his regular schedule and not forced to play catch in the rain like Kluber did on Tuesday afternoon. As for the A’s, they have yet to announce who will make the start in the second game of their doubleheader with the Indians. Jesse Chavez is slotted in at the #3 pitcher in their rotation, but is currently scheduled for Thursday’s start against the Mariners. First pitch for game two is scheduled to happen at 9:00 Eastern time.

After Monday’s impressive victory behind a dominant effort from Justin Masterson, it’s a shame to see their momentum sent crashing to the ground because of some heavy rain. Regardless, the Indians and Cory Kluber seem to be in good spirits about the recent developments and how they are coping with the new-found day off:

"“We’ve all been through rain delays before,” Kluber said. “It just pushes you back another day. For me, I just wanted to go out there and play a little bit of catch right now to get my arm going a little bit. That’s really it. There’s nothing you can do about it.”"

Let’s just hope the Indians can get two solid performances out of both Kluber and McAllister. If they can both make quality starts and pitch at least six innings, it could help save the bullpen and keep the Indians rolling through the weekend against the Twins.