ALCS: Postponed
Published 12:00 am Sunday, October 9, 2011
By Stephen Hawkins
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Texas ó The Detroit Tigers are wet and wounded.
After Game 2 of the AL championship series in Texas was postponed Sunday because of more rain in the forecast, manager Jim Leyland said the Tigers have lost their second starting outfielder for the series.
Magglio Ordonez is out for the rest of the season after he re-fractured his right ankle, which was surgically repaired in July 2010. He had missed more than a month this summer because of problems with that ankle, then came out of the twice-interrupted ALCS opener.
ěMagglio had just been talking three or four days ago about how he felt great, how he felt as good as heís felt for a long time,î Leyland said.
Already without Delmon Young (left oblique), the Tigers lost to the defending AL champion Texas Rangers 3-2 in Game 1. The second game was rescheduled for 4:19 p.m. EDT Monday, and the teams will lose their travel day with Game 3 still set for Tuesday in Detroit.
Derek Holland pitches Monday for the Rangers against Max Scherzer, who gets an extra day after his 1 1-3 innings of relief in the Tigersí AL division series clincher Thursday night against the New York Yankees.
The ALCS opener was stopped by rain twice in the top of the fifth inning Saturday night for a total of 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Ordonez, who had walked to load the bases during a 13-minute resumption of play between the delays, was replaced by a pinch runner when the game restarted for good. Leyland was told during the second stoppage of play that the ankle was bothering Ordonez again.
ěWhen the trainer came in during the rain delay and told me, I was almost flabbergasted, to be honest with you,î Leyland said. ěIt doesnít appear that there was any significant movement or anything that did it. It just all of a sudden it flared up.î
Leyland said the results of medical tests Sunday showed ěa situation there that is not conducive to playing the rest of the year.î
The manager didnít elaborate, but the Tigers later released the results of X-rays and a CT scan done Sunday that showed the re-fracture.
At 6:45 p.m. CDT, the scheduled first pitch Sunday, there were mostly overcast skies, though the sun had tried to peek through the clouds just before then. There was rain to the East but none at Rangers Ballpark, where the tarp covered the field. The only water visible were a few puddles on the warning track against the wall after the field had been inundated by heavy rains overnight.
But there was a forecast for more rain in the area Sunday night, and officials were wary of a repeat of what happened Saturday.