This is why the Red Sox are upset about Thursday's 1:10 start

Wednesday’s night’s game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles was called after six-and-a-half innings (and an hour delay) due to rain, which you’d think would be good news for the Red Sox since they had a 1:05 p.m. game to play in Detroit the next day. But the delays weren’t over.

UPDATE: we still haven't left Baltimore…. And the game tomorrow is at 1:10? Awesome ???????? #MLB #RedSox

— Travis Shaw (@travis_shaw21) August 18, 2016

So the Red Sox would be tired when they played the Tigers. Unfortunate, unpleasant, but not a huge deal, right? Well, this whole kerfuffle goes a whole lot deeper than that.

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It started in the offseason when the Red Sox noticed that after a 7:05 p.m. start in Baltimore, they had a 1:05 p.m. start in Detroit the following day. That didn’t fly with them, and according to Dan Toman at the Score, they asked Detroit to change it.

During the offseason, Boston requested Thursday’s series opener at Comerica Park be rescheduled as a night game, but the Tigers refused to make the accommodation despite Major League Baseball’s blessing.

It seems a little odd that the Tigers would refuse to change a Thursday afternoon start, but according to John Tomase of Boston’s WEEI, Tigers GM Al Avila had a decent reason.

Tigers GM Al Avila told MLB Network radio, “that 1 o’clock start time on Thursdays here is popular.” He also noted that the Lions play a preseason game across the street at 7:30 p.m. and playing in the afternoon will ease congestion.

But Tomase doesn’t buy that argument.

The Red Sox believe the Tigers manipulated the schedule to gain a competitive advantage on Thursday by playing a 1 p.m. game despite the Red Sox playing at 7 p.m. in Baltimore a night earlier.

…

The Red Sox privately believe the move is an F-U to former boss Dave Dombrowski, who arrived last August after being fired by the Tigers.

Tomase supports this by pointing out that the Tigers are asking the Red Sox to play in circumstances that they wouldn’t allow for themselves, and found four separate examples from the past four years.

The Red Sox have every right to be annoyed by this, especially since they got the raw end of both a scheduling quirk and the weather. But regardless of the reason, the Tigers were under no obligation to change anything for them, especially since the Red Sox are an opposing team. The point is to beat them, and so most teams will take a competitive advantage if they can get it.

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