KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Consecutive rainouts brought added frustration to a couple of teams yearning for a win – or at least a chance to win.

Rain forced the postponement of Saturday night’s game between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals, the second night in a row the slumping teams were rained out. The Tigers have lost 11 of 14, and the Royals are on a franchise-record 13-game losing streak.

“It will be tough on both teams,” Detroit manager Alan Trammell said. “Both teams would like to go out and stop a losing streak. Until that happens, both teams will want to go out there and do battle.”

Saturday’s game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday, with the first game starting at 1:10 p.m. CDT. Friday night’s game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sept. 20.

Runelvys Hernandez had been slated to start the first game Sunday for the Royals, but he was given the day off because his wife is having a difficult pregnancy. Instead, Mike Wood will face Detroit’s Jason Johnson in the first game, with Jose Lima going against Mike Maroth in the second game.

It’s the second time this year the Tigers have lost consecutive games due to bad weather.

“A day here, a day there, it’s OK,” Trammell said. “But two days – man! We didn’t take batting practice Thursday, we had a day game. So we’re not going to be on the field today. Say we play two on Sunday, that’s quite a long time without taking grounders, running around a little bit, doing those kind of things. But we’ll have to deal with it.”

For a team that’s lost 13 straight, consecutive rainouts might even help.

“Hopefully, this will be a blessing in disguise, help get us loosened up so we can play the kind of baseball we’re capable of playing,” Royals first baseman Mike Sweeney said. “Our routine this year hasn’t really been cutting it, so maybe it will be good to get us out of our routine, try something different.”

The rainouts were particularly tough on Kansas City’s promotion department. On Friday night in the rain, the club honored the 1985 team that won the town’s only World Series title. Bret Saberhagen, the MVP of that Series, was to be inducted into the Royals’ Hall of Fame on Saturday. Now those ceremonies will be held on Sunday.

“Sabes will be inducted no matter what happens,” Sweeney said. “We want to play baseball. We’re baseball players. We get paid a lot to go out and play a game that we’ve loved since we were 5 years old.”

Royals manager Buddy Bell was getting just as antsy as the players.

“We need to get (the losing streak) behind us and move on,” Bell said. “I think the longer we wait for a win, the tougher it is to deal with.”

AP-ES-08-13-05 2009EDT


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