ANAHEIM, Calif. — After 20 years and 1,609 consecutive home games, the Los Angeles Angels finally lost another game to rain.

Heavy downpours turned Angel Stadium’s outfield into virtual marshlands Sunday night, forcing the postponement of the Angels’ game against the Boston Red Sox. Los Angeles will host its first doubleheader since 2003 on Monday.

The grounds crew and drainage system couldn’t protect the grass from the remnants of Tropical Storm Dolores, which fell steadily all evening and caused a 21/2-hour delay before the postponement. Using brooms and rakes, the crew vainly attempted to push water around the outfield before the Angels finally called their first home rainout since June 16, 1995.

“Unfortunately, I guess you never really know how your drainage system works until you get enough water,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said after the first home rainout of his 16-year tenure in Anaheim. “There’s so much standing water in that outfield that just has nowhere to go. It’s going to be like that all night, probably be like that (Monday) morning. … The field was unplayable, with no way to remedy that.”

The Angels were rained out at home for just the 16th time in their 55-year history. They hadn’t even had a rain delay in a stretch of 359 regular-season home games since April 24, 2011.

According to David Ortiz, the Red Sox are the reason for this unusually rainy season.

“We bring bad weather everywhere,” Ortiz said. “Everywhere we go, it rains. That’s us. It’s not California. It’s us. Seriously, wherever we go, we bring rain. Every series we go to, there’s some rain going on, so I’m not surprised about this.”

This was just the second summer rainout in the Angels’ 55 seasons. Fourteen of the previous 15 rainouts happened in April or September.

“I can only go back to 1980 when I moved out here,” said Scioscia, a former Los Angeles Dodgers catcher. “I’ve never seen it rain in July here, ever. So I’m a little surprised. I remember it rained in April. I remember some rainouts when I was with the Dodgers in April. I remember a little bit of rain in June occasionally. Never this late.”

The Red Sox took it more sanguinely, since they’re more familiar with lengthy rain delays than the average Californian.

“Just looking at the outfield, it looks pretty bad,” Boston’s Dustin Pedroia said. “There’s a lot of good players in the outfield for both teams, so if something bad happens, it’s probably not smart. So it’s a good idea for them to do this.”

The rainout interrupted the momentum gathered by the Angels, who shut out the Red Sox in the first two games of the series.

Copy the Story Link