RailRiders smoked out again
Jun. 7—MOOSIC — There's a good chance Scranton/Wilkes-Barre manager Shelley Duncan thought he would never see a postponement as unusual as those summer days back in 2009.
Being smoked out on back-to-back days because of a wildfire burning hundreds of miles away another country might challenge that, however.
The RailRiders lost another game Wednesday because of an unhealthy air quality index, pushing their series opener against Norfolk to Thursday while hoping the smoke from the fires in Canada clears out enough by then.
For Duncan, it brought back memories of when drainage problems with the PNC Field playing surface forced two weekend games to be postponed in 2009 — on sunny July 4 and July 5, no less, with huge crowds expected. In a last-gasp effort, the club had a helicopter hover over right field, using it like a giant fan.
"The field smelled like a sewage pit, like a swamp," Duncan recalled.
All the helicopters in the country wouldn't help much this time around.
The air quality index Wednesday afternoon climbed well above 300 for Moosic, higher than it was Tuesday when the first game was postponed and the RailRiders' on-field batting practice was stopped midway through. On Wednesday, RailRiders pitchers took to the field to do their daily throwing and some even threw bullpens, but the majority of them were wearing masks or some type of face covering.
Add in the usual Monday off day, and the RailRiders will have gone three days without playing a game, the kind of layoff normally only reserved for the all-star break. Duncan said the hitters continue to work in the indoor batting cages, and that while he doesn't want some players' rhythms to get thrown off, he could also see it being a good mental break.
The more pressing concern is on the pitching side. If the teams play Thursday, it will be just a single game. That would leave two doubleheaders to be crammed into the remaining three days of the series, creating a lot of innings for pitching coach Graham Johnson's staff to fill. In addition, longer layoffs in the Yankees organization tend to mean lower pitch-count limits for starters. Mitch Spence, who was supposed to start Tuesday's game and then Wednesday's hasn't pitched since May 31.
"When it goes to Graham's side, it's like it makes it a Monday New York Times crossword puzzle into a Friday New York Times crossword puzzle," Duncan said. "It's a lot harder. It's a lot more things to juggle."
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