McAdam: Postponement scuttles Red Sox pitching plans for start of homestand

As often happens early in the season, the New England weather is playing havoc with the Red Sox pitching plans.

The scheduled series opener Friday night between the Red Sox and Chicago White Sox at Fenway was postponed due to the combination of snow, freezing temperatures, and expected rain throughout the night.

The game will be made up as part of a split doubleheader Sunday. The regularly scheduled game between the Red Sox and White Sox set for 1:10 p.m. will take place, followed by a second, separate admission at 5:10 p.m. Tickets for Friday's game will be honored for the second game Sunday afternoon.

(Both games will be seven-inning affairs Sunday).

On Saturday, the Sox will go with Nick Pivetta, (2-0, 3.27), who was set to pitch Friday before the weather intervened.



Accordingly, the Red Sox will use Sunday's starter, Martin Perez (0-0, 4.50), in one of the two games Sunday. For the other, although they haven't made it official, the Sox will utilize Tanner Houck (0-1, 3.00), who will make his second start of the season. Previously, Houck was inserted into the rotation to take the spot of Eduardo Rodriguez, who missed his first turn in the rotation as he recovered from a "dead arm'' late in spring training.

Houck can be easily added to the roster without removing anyone since teams are given a 27th player for doubleheaders.

Monday's starter will be Nathan Eovaldi (2-1, 2.08), who was already set to pitch the traditional Patriots Day game at 11:10 a.m.

Later in the homestand, however, the Red Sox will have another issue. Because Pivetta's start was moved by a day, he'd be going on just three days' rest instead of the customary four when his turn next comes around (Wednesday, against Toronto).

Unless the Sox keep his start deliberately short on Saturday, they'll need someone else to make a start Wednesday. And unlike Sunday, that issue won't be handled with the luxury of a 27th man.

The Sox have some internal options on hand. Either Matt Andriese or rookie Garrett Whitlock could provide the Sox with multiple innings to start, though it's unlikely either could be expected to provide the standard five innings  the Sox have been getting from their starters.

Still, if either Andriese or Whitlock could give the Sox, say, three or so innings, manager Alex Cora could likely string the rest of the game together from available relievers.

This sort of on-the-fly scheduling is hardly unique for April, and the Red Sox are, if nothing else, better positioned to deal with these changes to their pitching plans than they were a year ago.

This is the second Red Sox rainout of the young season -- they lost their season opener for a period of 24 hours -- though they still have some catching up to do with the New York Mets, who have had nearly as many postponed or suspended games (seven) as they have games played (eight). The Mets were rained out of the final game of their homestand with the Phillies Thursday at Citi Field, then arrived in the middle of a snowstorm in Denver late Thursday night and had the opener of their series with Rockies snowed out.