The Mets inadvertently threw a wrench into a series that is virtually meaningless for themselves but monstrous for the Marlins, who are playing with some of the strangest bulletin-board material in recent memory.
The Marlins want to beat the Mets and probably their grounds crew, too.
Miami was angry after Tuesday’s game — which was set to begin several hours after the day’s last raindrop fell — had to be postponed due to poor field conditions, setting up Wednesday’s doubleheader at Citi Field.
The field had been battered by rain from Tropical Storm Ophelia for four days, but the precipitation had relented by late afternoon Tuesday, when the tarp was taken off the field.
The infield dirt, though — even after the grounds crew worked on it for several hours to try to dry the surfaces — was a mess because the tarp had not covered the field Saturday, when the Mets were playing in Philadelphia.
In the Marlins’ clubhouse, the news of the postponement “wasn’t well received, to be honest,” Marlins outfielder Bryan De La Cruz said through an interpreter Wednesday. “But at the end of the day, you got to control what you can control.”
His manager echoed the message of acknowledging frustration but trying to brush it away.
“It was obviously a giant mess-up [Tuesday] night,” Skip Schumaker said before the doubleheader. “But the reality is we have two games today.”
The playability problem stemmed from the Mets’ grounds crew leaving the field uncovered Saturday.
The practice of letting the field take water is not unique, according to a team source, provided there is enough time for the field to dry.
Original forecasts had shown that the storms would cease earlier.
As it turned out, Ophelia lingered, and there was not enough time to get the field into shape.
“The reality is that the tarp wasn’t on over the weekend, and this is what happens,” said Schumaker, whose team’s remaining games are far more significant than the Mets’. “You couldn’t play [Tuesday]. That’s just what it is.”
Officials from the Mets and Marlins, including both clubs’ managers and Miami GM Kim Ng, huddled on the field several times before the game was called at 8:20 p.m.
Mets manager Buck Showalter said he understood the Marlins’ frustration and stood up for Bill Deacon, the club’s executive director of field operations and landscaping, who is “one of the best groundskeepers I’ve ever been around.”
“Our sincere apologies to the Marlins and their fans for having to postpone [Tuesday] night’s game,” Mets owner Steve Cohen said in a tweet. “We know how important this series is to the Marlins and every effort was made to get the field playable.”
The Marlins entered play a half-game back in the NL wild-card chase, short on pitching and suddenly with more complicated rotation plans.
They had planned to pitch starter Braxton Garrett on Tuesday, which would have allowed the lefty to come back on normal rest for the season finale on Sunday.
Instead, Garrett got the ball for the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader, so if he pitches Sunday, it would be on three days’ rest.
The Marlins’ rotation has been decimated, having lost Sandy Alcantara and Eury Perez to injuries this month.
The Mets have pleaded innocent of anything nefarious.
“There’s nothing cloak and dagger, just the way it is when it rains [four] straight days like that,” said Showalter, who added that the Mets didn’t want to play a doubleheader, either.
The Marlins attempted to move past their annoyance, even if it popped up a few times.
“Every team is going through something, right?” Schumaker said. “Whether there’s injury or issues with the rotation or forgetting to tarp the field.”
