White Sox Singing Dirge in the Rain

The Angels can only hope that the weather improves before they open a series in Chicago on Friday. Apparently, if a game in Comiskey Park is scheduled, a game will be played.

One was Wednesday night, in rain driven by a 60-mph wind, and Texas’ Bobby Witt actually caught a spitball in pitching the Rangers to a 6-2 win in a game that was called in the top of the seventh inning when conditions became unbearable.

“I’ve pitched in the cold but those conditions were the worst as far as the wind and the mist,” Witt said. “When the catcher would throw the ball back to the mound, it would actually get wet.”

Chicago’s Frank Thomas was irate.

“Those are the worst conditions I’ve ever played in,” he said. “We should have been out of there in the third inning. The tarp should be on the field in those kinds of conditions. That’s why we have it.

“Players get hurt in that. . . . It was very dangerous.”

So dangerous that both teams lost starting pitchers before the third inning. The Rangers’ Ken Hill went out in the bottom of the second inning because of a strain of his right rotator cuff. Xavier Hernandez replaced Hill and then Witt (5-0), who had already thrown in the bullpen before the game as part of his workout, pitched the final two innings.

Chicago’s Wilson Alvarez (1-4) pitched only two innings before leaving with stiffness in his left shoulder.