KANSAS CITY—-The White Sox and Royals series opener at Kaufman stadium was postponed due to rain Friday night and will be now played as part of a twi-night double header Saturday evening. Umpire Joe West has already cost the White Sox fines this season, but on Friday night the feeling was that West – who was the crew chief for the start of the series with the Royals – may have cost them even more this time around.Despite bad weather in the Kansas City area projected throughout the evening, it was West’s decision to start the game between the Sox and Royals. A game that lasted a total of five hitters before it was first delayed, and then eventually postponed.That left the Sox angry, as well as scrambling with how to handle Saturday’s traditional double-header, which will start at 6:10 p.m. Because of the exclusive TV rights FOX has a day-night doubleheader was ruled out.How it affected the Sox specifically? Well, Edwin Jackson, who was arguably the hottest starting pitcher the Sox had going, threw seven pitches, on top of the usual pre-game warm-up, so that basically took him out of the equation for coming back Saturday and pitching. The Sox announced that Freddy Garcia would start Game 1, but they were scrambling to find a Game 2 starter. It will either be a roster move or a bullpen game, with Tony Pena the likely candidate to start. Either way, it makes Jackson a non-factor for almost a week and a half from when he pitched last until when he takes the mound again, and will put a strain on a bullpen that already has question marks with how much overtime they’ve put in as of late. The real kicker? After starting Game 1 at 6:10 and then Game 2 30 minutes after Game 1 ends, the Sox have to comeback on Sunday morning for a 1:10 p.m. first-pitch against Zack Greinke.Thanks to the Minnesota Twins winning a laugher over an Angels team that looks like its ready for the offseason, the Sox will play the three-game marathon starting the evening 4 ½ games back.Friday’s decision making was poor at best. For conspiracy theorists it could go even a step further. It was West that was responsible for the Mark Buehrle “balk game’’ back on May 26 in Cleveland, when Buehrle was called for a balk by West, it was argued by Guillen, who was then tossed. An inning later, West called Buehrle for a second balk, leading to Buehrle’s ejection.Both Guillen and Buehrle made it very clear how they felt about West afterward on that day.
“Because he’s a f—ing a—hole, that’s what he is,’’ Guillen said of West. “I just went out to ask him … I wasn’t asking about the balk because you’re not allowed, anytime you go out there to ask about balk or whatever. The thing I went out to ask him about was why he was embarrassing Buehrle. I’m not going out to argue about the balk because the rule, but I went out to ask him why he’s embarrassing Buehrle and he give me one of this [dismissing him with his hands]. When you’re a professional and you have to respect the managers, the way we’re supposed to respect the umpires, they are supposed to respect back. … sometimes he thinks f—ing people pay to watch him f—ing umpire. He’s the type of guy that wants to control the game, it’s good for the game, and to me one of the best umpires in the game, no doubt. But in the meanwhile, those years are on his shoulders and kind of heavy and showing people who he is.’’
Buehrle fired off this gem: “I did the same move the toss right before that and [West] didn’t call a balk on it. I think he’s too worried about promoting his [Country Music] CD and I think he likes seeing his name in the papers a little bit too much instead of worrying about the rules.’’
Both Buehrle and Guillen were fined, as was West.No wonder Friday was a head-scratcher. Saturday night, Philip Humber will make his first big league start of the season for the Royals in the opener against Freddy Garcia. Bryan Bullington goes in the second game for Kansas City, while the White Sox are undecided.The teams played for 9 minutes Friday night before heavy storms hit Kauffman Stadium. Sean O’Sullivan retired the White Sox in order in the first. After Gregor Blanco walked to lead off the bottom of the inning, the count was 1-1 with Jason Kendall at the plate when the tarp was placed on the field.After waiting 91 minutes with no let up in the rain, West postponed the game.The Sox trail first-place Minnesota by 4½ games in the AL Central and comes to Kansas City after losing two of three to the Twins. “When you go there [Minnesota] and play the way we did and then you say, ‘Wow, we’re going to Kansas City,’ it’s the opposite,” White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “People thought we were going to kick Baltimore’s butt. Very good surprise — we lost the series. We go to Detroit — we lost the series.We better bring our best game here, because it could be a very disappointing weekend. We’d better be prepared to fight. We better be prepared to win this weekend. It’s not going to be easy.”