ATLANTA – Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker will have to wait a bit longer to take advantage of his newly expanded pitching rotation.
Relentless rain took care of that.
The Braves’ game against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night was postponed after steady rain throughout the day. The game never started and was called about 90 minutes after its first pitch was scheduled to be thrown.
The game will be made up as the first contest of a split doubleheader on Aug. 13, when Miami returns to Atlanta. This was the 45th postponed game in the majors this year, six more than all of last season.
Snitker quickly shuffled his rotation, including a change in plans for right-hander Kevin Gausman, acquired from the Baltimore Orioles before Tuesday’s trade deadline. Snitker plans to use a six-man rotation with Gausman, who had been set to start on Friday against the Mets in New York but instead will make his Braves debut on Saturday.
Right-hander Mike Foltynewicz will start as scheduled when Atlanta opens the four-game series Thursday night. Right-hander Anibal Sanchez, who had been set to pitch Wednesday night, instead will start Friday, and Julio Teheran is scheduled for Sunday’s game.
Marlins right-hander Pablo Lopez, who had been scheduled to pitch Wednesday night, instead will start Thursday when Miami opens a four-game series at Philadelphia.
The Braves won the first two games of the series with Miami and entered Wednesday’s schedule one-half game behind first-place Philadelphia in the NL East.
Snitker hoped to play Wednesday night’s game because he wanted to avoid having to play two doubleheaders in a week. The Braves already have a doubleheader scheduled Tuesday at Washington.
“It’s not a big deal,” Snitker said. “You want to play just because I didn’t really want to get the doubleheaders backed up. And, you know, I wanted Anibal to get out there, and we’ve got a little three-game (winning streak) going and I wanted to keep playing.”
As expected, Braves rookie Kolby Allard was optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett after his win in his MLB debut Tuesday night. The Braves recalled right-handed pitcher Wes Parsons, who also is looking to make his first appearance in an MLB game. Parsons was recalled for one day on June 27 but did not appear in a game.
This was the Braves’ third home game postponed by rain this year and the fifth in two seasons at SunTrust Park. Rain delayed the start of Tuesday night’s game by 1 hour, 27 minutes, but the Braves won 11-6 after the wait.