(TSX / STATS) — NEW YORK — Thursday’s series finale between the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals was postponed due to heavy rain at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees announced the final game of the four-game series will be made up on Sept. 25 and a start time will be announced a later date.
The forecast in the Bronx called for heavy rains throughout Thursday, prompting the Yankees to announce the postponement roughly four hours before the scheduled first pitch.
The Yankees were slated to start Masahiro Tanaka, who is coming off the two worst outings of his career. Tanaka has allowed 14 runs and 16 hits in 4 2/3 innings in losses to the Houston Astros and Tampa Bay Rays.
Kansas City was slated to start Miguel Almonte. Almonte was scheduled to make his first career start in place of Nate Karns, who was placed on the disabled list Wednesday with a forearm injury.
Tanaka will likely start Friday’s opener against the Oakland Athletics. Almonte could be pushed back to start Tuesday at home against Detroit and Friday’s start in Cleveland could go to Ian Kennedy on normal rest.
The Yankees will play Friday without Jacoby Ellsbury, who is on the seven-day concussion disabled list.
Ellsbury crashed into the center field wall to catch a long fly ball from Alcides Escobar on the first pitch of Wednesday’s game. He initially stayed in the game was but was removed after the first inning and diagnosed with a concussion and a sprained neck after getting checked out by doctors and trainer Steve Donahue.
“He felt like it was his neck that was bothering him a little bit. Nothing to do with his head. It was more like a whiplash,” Girardi said. “After coming in at the end of the inning, he went down (to the clubhouse) and Stevie went and talked to him and declared that we should probably get him out. And then he saw the doctors and they determined that he had a concussion.”
It was the second time this season Ellsbury was injured crashing into the wall. He did not start for three straight games due to a nerve injury in his left elbow after tracking down a fly ball by Toronto’s Ryan Goins on May 1.
“He plays to win,” Girardi said. “It’s unfortunate that he’s hit the wall a couple times hard. Obviously, we’re going to miss him for a while now, but he plays hard.”
The Yankees recalled utility man Rob Refsnyder from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take Ellsbury’s place on the 25-man roster.
The makeup game will now give the Yankees a season-ending seven-game homestand. The Royals will fly from Chicago to New York before playing their final six games of the season at home.
New York took two of three in the series, getting a 4-2 victory Monday and a 3-0 win Wednesday. Kansas City took Tuesday’s game by hitting four home runs in a 6-2 win but did little in eight innings against Luis Severino on Wednesday.
“I don’t know where they found that guy,” Kansas City center fielder Lorenzo Cain said. “But he’s pretty darn good, I’ll tell you that.”
Thursday was the second rainout of the season for the Yankees and the third for the Royals.
Photo credit – Ryan Hatch / NJ Advance Media / New York, NY