There was nothing worse in Little League than a rainout.
And the Tigers and Yankees could be facing the prospects of that for Sunday’s seventh-annual Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa. The forecast is dicey, and the Tigers and Yankees didn’t travel until early Sunday morning, in case MLB made an early decision that the game would be postponed.
It’s not clear if weather would postpone the game or cancel it. The Tigers and Yankees do have a mutual off-day Monday.
“Everybody’s rooting for better weather. You know it would be a bummer to get it rained out,” Hinch said Saturday. “It would probably be more of a bummer to fly there and not play.
“We’re in a waiting pattern. It doesn’t look great, but all of us are amateur weather forecasters and not experts. So we’ll wait to be told what to do.”
Tarik Skubal is the Tigers’ scheduled starter for the Little League Classic, and would normally fly in a day early. But he wasn’t doing that Saturday, in case of bad weather Sunday.
“It’s going to be a fun environment,” Skubal said earlier in the week. “It’s going to be fun. You are going to enjoy it. And I will probably enjoy it more when I’m done. It’s probably going to be a whirlwind of a day.
MLB Little League Classic
TIGERS VS. YANKEES
▶ First pitch: 7:10 p.m. Sunday, Bowman Field, Williamsport, Pa.
▶ TV/radio: ESPN/97.1
SCOUTING REPORT
▶ RHP Marcus Stroman (8-6, 4.01), Yankees: It’s been an up-and-down season for the veteran in his first season with the Yankees. He had a good outing last time out, allowing a run on four hits, but Stroman was hit around the time before that, allowing seven runs on eight hits in just 2⅔ innings.
▶ LHP Tarik Skubal (14-4, 2.53), Tigers: His march toward a possible (perhaps even probable, at this point) American League Cy Young award continues under the lights in Williamsport, on national television. He’s making a run at the pitching Triple Crown (wins, strikeouts and ERA), something Justin Verlander did in Detroit in 2011.