Why is the White Sox-Guardians Game Delayed Today? When Will it Start?

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Why is the White Sox-Guardians game delayed today? Here's the latest on the weather delay, why first pitch was postponed and when the game is expected to start.

Rain stopped the Chicago White Sox cold in the middle of their best inning of the night, freezing a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Guardians in the top of the fifth Friday at Progressive Field.

The delay was declared at 8:21 p.m. ET, but that was the worst possible moment for Cleveland and the best for Chicago, arriving seconds after Miguel Vargas turned a full count into a go-ahead three-run homer, leaving both AL Central rivals in limbo with a division race hanging in the balance.

At about 9:50, the teams announced that play was set to resume at 10:15 p.m. local time, according to UnderdogMLB. The game did, in fact, restart nearly as scheduled, getting back underway at 10:16, a delay of one hour and 55 minutes.

Because 5 innings had not been completed, the game was not yet official, under MLB rules. That means if play did not resume Friday night, it would likely be ruled a suspended game, and picked up possibly on Saturday, or a later date, from the point where it stopped.

In fact as the delay stretched to nearly an hour, the Guardians still had not even mentioned on their social media that any delay was in progress, much less a restart time.

“How have the Cleveland Guardians not said anything on their X page about the rain delay..?” one fan wrote on social media. “At least communicate with your fans and especially the fans who paid to go tonight. Terrible communication.”

MLB.com reporter Tim Stebbins posted the 10:15 restart time at 9:49 p.m., and the Guardians social media reposted Stebbins’ post. That was the closest thing to an announcement for the home team itself that had appeared online.

At about 9:20 p.m., Sports meteorologist Kevin Roth noted a gap in the storm system shown on radar.

“Guardians might want to get this going again asap then try to play through incoming lighter showers,” he wrote, noting a more powerful storm system following the pause in the weather. “If they wait for this batch that may be game.”

Chicago has held the top spot in the division for weeks, but Cleveland has been closing the gap, making every half-inning of this stretch of the season series feel heavier than a typical July matchup between two teams still jockeying for position in a tightening race.

Miguel Vargas’ Homer Triggers the Delay

Chase Meidroth and Tristan Peters opened the fifth with back-to-back singles off Cleveland right-hander Gavin Williams. Two outs later, Vargas stepped in against Williams and fell behind 0-2 before working the count full.

He then drove a 106.3 mph line drive 374 feet over the left-field wall, against the wind, scoring Meidroth and Peters ahead of him and flipping a 1-0 Cleveland lead into a 3-1 Chicago advantage, according to the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Jeff Agrest.

Umpires appeared to let the 10-pitch at-bat play out before waving in the grounds crew, and the tarp came out shortly after, with the delay officially beginning around 8:21 p.m. EDT, according to Chicago Tribune reporter LaMond Pope, who tracked the sequence in real time.

Cleveland had taken the early lead in the third inning on a Travis Bazzana single that brought home Gabriel Arias. Chicago starter Anthony Kay had otherwise kept the Guardians’ lineup in check into the middle innings, working opposite Williams, who entered the night 9-4 with a 3.81 ERA. Kay came in at 6-3 with a 4.50 ERA, and a win would push his record further above .500.

Weather Outlook and What’s at Stake

Skies over Cleveland sat around 86 degrees with rain falling steadily at the time of the stoppage, matching the gametime conditions logged ahead of first pitch, according to an ESPN gamecast weather tracker tied to the game.

No resumption time had been announced as the tarp remained on the field. Guardians broadcaster Matt Underwood indicated on the air that he did not expect a long delay, according to a broadcast update relayed by reporter Joey Mistretta shortly after the stoppage began.

The pause caught the White Sox trying to regain control of a series that has swung back and forth over the past two weeks, including a walk-off Cleveland win two nights earlier at Progressive Field. Chicago entered the night atop the American League Central at 45-41, with the Guardians one game back at 45-42 and riding a modest winning streak of their own heading into the weekend slate.

Cleveland has stayed within arm’s length of Chicago for much of the past two weeks, turning this series into a tighter fight than either side expected in early July.

A completed win would keep the White Sox in first place and hand Kay his seventh victory of the season. A Cleveland comeback, or a full postponement that wipes out the Vargas homer, would leave the division picture unchanged heading into the weekend.