Tigers and Mets postponed by rain for 2nd straight day, will play doubleheader Thursday

NEW YORK (AP) For the second consecutive day, the scheduled game between the Detroit Tigers and New York Mets was postponed because of rain.

Wednesday night's game will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader beginning at 12:10 p.m. on Thursday, originally an off day for both teams before steady showers soaked Citi Field this week.

When the undefeated Tigers and winless Mets were unable to play Tuesday night, a makeup game was initially set for Thursday at 1:10 p.m. But now the clubs will play two that day.

Detroit plays its home opener Friday afternoon against Oakland. New York is at Cincinnati on Friday night.

The rainouts delayed Casey Mize's long-awaited return to the Tigers' rotation. The top pick in the 2018 amateur draft was scheduled to start Tuesday - and then Wednesday - after missing nearly two years while recovering from Tommy John surgery and a back operation. He hasn't pitched in the majors since April 14, 2022, at Kansas City.

Mize will start Thursday's doubleheader opener, and Detroit will bring up right-hander Matt Manning from Triple-A Toledo to pitch the second game.

Adrian Houser will make his Mets debut in Game 1. Acquired from Milwaukee in a December trade, the right-hander originally was scheduled to start Tuesday, and then Wednesday.

New York said its starter for the second game was to be determined. Right-hander Jose Buttó is a candidate to come up from the minors.

With rain falling all day and expected through the night, the Mets announced Wednesday's postponement about six hours before the scheduled first pitch. Aware of the wet forecast, the teams waited almost two hours hoping to play Tuesday night before that game was called just after 9 p.m.

New York has been rained out three times already in a dreary first week of the season. Last week’s opener against Milwaukee was pushed back a day until Friday.

Mize, who turns 27 on May 1, was 7-9 with a 3.71 ERA in 30 starts for Detroit as a rookie in 2021.

Finally healthy again, the right-hander from Auburn went 3-1 with a 2.21 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 20 1/3 innings in six spring training games this year, including five starts.

“I’m proud of him because it has been a lot of work to get to this point. Much of it, none of us have seen,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday. “And the first competitive juices that he got were in the spring. So, this will be a whole ’nother level. And so, what does Mother Nature do? Rewards him with some unknowns.”

Detroit is 4-0 for its best start since opening with six wins in 2015. All four victories have come on the road - two in extra innings and the first three (against the Chicago White Sox) by one run.

Under new manager Carlos Mendoza, the Mets are 0-4 for the first time since losing their first five games in 2005. They also had a rookie manager that season: Willie Randolph.

“You hate to go through it. You hate to see it, especially the way we’ve been playing. They know. They know we’re better than that,” Mendoza said Tuesday. “But at the same time, it’s not the first time that they’ve gone through it. It just happens to be the first four games of the season. And everything that we went through over the weekend, not the way we expected it. But again, pretty confident with the guys that we’ve got in that room, we’ll turn it around pretty soon here.”

First, the weather must finally cooperate.

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