Angels rained out for 1st time since '95, postponing game with Red Sox

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- That cloud that has seemingly followed theBoston Red Soxall season dropped buckets of rain on them in Southern California on Sunday, leading to a postponement of what was to have been an ESPN-televised game between the Sox and Los Angeles Angels.

The teams waited for nearly 2 hours before the game was postponed.

The rainout was the 11th in the 49-year history of Angel Stadium and the first since June 16, 1995, when the Angels were washed out of a game against the Chicago White Sox. The Angels had played 1,609 consecutive home games without being rained out.

The team's Twitter account attempted to put that stat into context:

"Unfortunately, you never really know how your drainage system works until you get enough water, and there's so much standing water in that outfield that just has nowhere to go," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "It's going to be like that all night tonight, probably tomorrow morning. The rain is predicted to stop shortly, but the field was unplayable, with no way to remedy that.

"Was there a clog? I'm not a landscaper, but I don't think it's ever been tested like this. It's a lot of rain. Don't think anything is clogged. It's just saturated."

The grounds crew and other field personnel tried to squeegee the outfield during the rain delay, but the effort proved futile.

"I've never seen that before," said Red Sox mental skills coach Bob Tewksbury, who pitched in the big leagues for 13 seasons. "It looked like they were trying to rake the water."

The teams are scheduled to play a day-night doubleheader Monday, the first doubleheader to be played at Angel Stadium due to a rainout since Aug. 5, 1988, a makeup game for an April 14, 1988 rainout. The Angels also played a doubleheader here on Sept, 6, 2003, against the Kansas City Royals, the result of a rainout in Kansas City earlier that season.

The pitching matchups will remain the same: Eduardo Rodriguez versusHector Santiago in the first game, Steven Wright versusAndrew Heaney in the second game. The first game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. PT, the second at 7 p.m. PT, which should make for quite the rush-hour tie-up on the freeways that encircle Angel Stadium.

Red Sox manager John Farrell pitched two seasons for the Angels, in 1993 and 1994. Until Saturday, when rain led the grounds crew to deploy the tarp, he said he'd never seen the tarp here.

"Based on the conditions the way they were, with so much standing water even last night, no drainage in the outfield here, honestly, I don't think playing tonight was a likely situation," Farrell said.

The San Diego Padres' home game against the Colorado Rockieswas also postponed, the first rainout at Petco Park since 2006. The game will be made up on Sept. 10.