Astros, Guardians season finale canceled by rain, denying Ramírez chance to hit 40th homer

CLEVELAND (AP) — The regular season finale between the Guardians and Houston Astros was canceled Sunday after a lengthy delay, preventing Cleveland third baseman José Ramírez from a shot at hitting his 40th home run and joining the exclusive 40-40 club.

With Houston set to open its AL wild-card series at home on Tuesday, and with a forecast of steady rain expected for several more hours, the game never started and was called following a 3-hour, 5-minute delay.

The Guardians finish at 92-69 and the AL Central champions will host Game 1 of the ALDS on Oct. 5. They'll play either the AL West champion Astros (88-73) or Detroit Tigers, who clinched a wild-card berth.

“We know Detroit very well and obviously just got to know Houston,” said Guardians first-year manager Stephen Vogt, who did a remarkable job in following beloved manager Terry Francona. "So we know whoever we end up playing, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.

“It’s an exciting field. All six teams have their strengths, have their weaknesses, and it’s really cool to have three AL Central teams in it.”

Vogt and Houston manager Joe Espada met on the tarped field with the umpiring crew, head groundskeeper and Guardians' front office members for 15 minutes at about 2:20 — 55 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.

“We had our concerns over safety for our players,” Vogt said. "The field has taken a ton of water over the last three days and that was really the No. 1 thing for us. At the end of the day, we waited until MLB decided we couldn’t go.

“We wanted to play, but we also wanted to be smart and if the rain isn’t going to stop, we don’t want to put our players out there in a game that has no consequence.”

The hearty fans who stayed inside Progressive Field during the long delay watched the Browns-Las Vegas Raiders game on Progressive Field's giant scoreboard.

Ramírez finished with 39 homers, leaving him one short of becoming the seventh player in MLB history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in the same season. The six-time All-Star also ended with 41 steals and 39 doubles, one shy of a rare 40-40-40 season, which has only been accomplished by Alfonso Soriano in 2006.

“Unfortunately, Hosey didn’t get to have one more shot at it,” Vogt said. “But to be the second person in the history of baseball to do what he did this year, that's still a pretty cool feat. You think about all the close calls that he had and the times he was robbed and it’s still a remarkable season, what he put together.”

Cleveland's jump in the standings after winning 76 games in 2023 also led to a bump in attendance as the Guardians drew more than 2 million fans at home for the first time since 2017.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Astros: LF Yordan Alvarez (knee sprain) is scheduled to take batting practice on Monday, a possible final hurdle for him to clear in order to be on the wild-card roster. Espada said the swelling in Alvarez's knee has gone down and the Astros were cautiously optimistic about the slugger's availability this week.

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb (middle finger blister) had his usual velocity during a 35-pitch simulated game. He'll throw another on Thursday and Vogt said the team is moving forward with plans to have him pitch in the postseason. Cobb has been sidelined since Sept. 1, and made just three starts since being acquired in a trade on July 30.

UP NEXT

Astros: A Monday workout, followed by the wild-card opener with Framber Valdez (15-7, 2.91 ERA) starting Game 1..

Guardians: Will take Monday off before playing simulated games and working out ahead of the ALDS opener.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

SUNDAY

Tom Withers, The Associated Press