ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Cardinals announced that play will resume at 4:20 p.m. ET after their game Wednesday afternoon against the Orioles went into a rain delay in the middle of the fourth inning.
After beginning the day playing the last three and a half innings of Tuesday night’s suspended contest, a 3-1 St. Louis win, the teams stopped play with Baltimore leading 3-0 at 2:56 p.m. EST to allow the grounds crew to roll out the tarp before the rain began to fall. An extended delay could spell the second straight early exit for an Orioles starting pitcher after Kyle Bradish’s day ended after five innings Tuesday. Left-hander John Means was through three frames with no runs allowed on one hit, two walks and a strikeout in 51 pitches.
After dropping the series opener, the Orioles’ historic streak of 106 consecutive series of at least two decisions without being swept is in danger of being ended by St. Louis, the team that holds the record for the longest such streak. Baltimore began its run, which stands as the American League record, in May 2022. The only teams in MLB history to go longer without a sweep are the 1906-1909 Chicago Cubs (115) and the 1942-44 Cardinals (124).
The Orioles have had eight games affected by weather this season, accruing 13 hours, 8 minutes’ worth of rain delays. That total only includes 1 hour, 31 minutes of the 15 hours between pitches Tuesday night into Wednesday morning after the game was officially suspended. After picking up the contest with the score tied 1-1, the Orioles coughed up two runs in the sixth to fall 3-1.
