DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds were set to play Major League Baseball's first doubleheader scheduled for seven-inning games on Sunday in order to make up a rainout.
The start of Saturday's game was moved up five hours in an attempt to beat a forecast calling for a wet evening, but steady rain arrived during the national anthem. The game never got started and was called after a 55-minute wait, angering Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer.
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Sunday's doubleheader is scheduled for 12:10 p.m.
The new seven-inning doubleheader rule was announced Friday by Major League Baseball and the players' association, saying it would start Saturday and was an effort to promote player health and safety.
Minor leagues have previously had the option of shortening one or both games of a doubleheader to seven scheduled innings.
Detroit plans to start right-hander Rony Garcia, in the first game and left-hander Daniel Norris in the second. Right-hander Michael Fulmer, who had been slated to start Saturday, is to be skipped.
Cincinnati did not immediately announce probable starters for Saturday. Bauer had been scheduled for Saturday and fellow right-hander Anthony DeSclafini for Sunday.
Bauer criticized the decision to move the first pitch from 6:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. as well as the late decision to delay the game.
"You let starters get hot for the game and then delay it 8 minutes before game time," he tweeted. “Never in my ten year career have I seen something so amateur. Not in the minor leagues. Not in the big leagues. Never saw it even in college.”
“So you can read the radar 24 hours in advance to know you need to move the game up 5 hours the next day but you can’t read it 30 minutes in advance to know there’s a massive cell coming and you need to delay it before the starters throw for the day?” he also tweeted.
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