CHICAGO – The potential for severe storms including hail and high winds led to the postponement of Wednesday’s series finale between the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox, with manager John Gibbons pushing each of his starters back one day as a result.
Esmil Rogers, who was slated to pitch at U.S. Cellular Field, will instead handle the opener of a four-game set at the Texas Rangers on Thursday, to be followed by Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, and R.A. Dickey.
Chien-Ming Wang, coming off his Blue Jays debut the previous night, is now scheduled to pitch the opener of a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies at Rogers Centre on Monday.
“He’s part of our five-man rotation now so we’ll just keep everyone in line,” Gibbons said of whether skipping Rogers was discussed.
The White Sox issued a release announcing the postponement at 1:19, and no makeup date was announced.
The teams have no more series scheduled, but share common off-days Aug. 8, 19, 29 and Sept. 23. The Blue Jays play a day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Aug. 20 to make up a previous postponement.
Rogers will be making his third start of the season, throwing 62 pitches in his first time out and 73 in the second, when he allowed one run over four innings with six strikeouts against the Rangers last week in Toronto.
Asked how long he can go this time, he replied, “We’ll see. I think we can go 90, 95, so I hope it can be like that. It’s not about pitches, it’s about what I can do to help the team win.”
The 27-year-old right-hander, a laid-back sort, fluffed off the notion of having to make a mental adjustment in readying for a new opponent, saying: I can take one day to prepare for the next team, it doesn’t matter.”
“I got already in my mind how I’m going to pitch these guys, how I’m pitching already,” he added. “This team is an aggressive team, I have to have all my pitches ready.”
