Orioles hoping to finally catch a break from the weather

NEW YORK - Will the Orioles be able to play two games today?

One has been impossible.

The forecast shows partly cloudy skies but no rain, with temperatures inching toward the 70s. Which means hail. Watch for it.

It can't get much worse than Monday night.

The Yankees called off yesterday's game more than an hour before first pitch. They ripped off the Band-Aid. They waited more than three hours after the scheduled first pitch to call off Monday's game. They ripped off fans who sat through a long delay without a single update beyond the announcement of an anticipated 7:45 p.m. start time.

Players left the dugout and headed back to the clubhouse, seeking warmth and their own updates via the televisions suspended from the ceiling.

It was quite a show, the grounds crew trying to remove standing water with brooms and leaf blowers. The pitch fork made no sense.

Trey Mancini was supposed to play right field, giving him the chance to stay a little drier than Dwight Smith Jr. in left. But he patrolled the entire outfield and knew that playing was a bad idea.

"The conditions were not great," he said, earning status as early favorite for biggest understatement.

"We were trying to run and do our normal stretch routine and we just couldn't do it. I know it's been raining a lot up here, so it's tough. I mean, it's so hard. If it's tough for the grounds crew, it's tough for everybody involved. They did the best they could to get the field ready, but I think everybody kind of determined it was a better idea to not play in those conditions.

"My socks were pretty wet after stretching. I came in and actually put a new pair on, put plastic on over it and then put another pair of socks over it so my feet would stay dry."

Did Mancini play baseball or football at Notre Dame?

"I tried to battle the elements just in case we played," he said. "It had just rained too much."

The grounds crew's attempts to fix the field and manager Brandon Hyde's conversations with umpires made for intriguing television.

"They had a live feed of them trying to brush the field off, so we were looking at the TV, seeing how that was going," Mancini said.

"You almost get a better angle in here than you do out there. But we were staying ready just in case we played. That's the thing. No matter what the forecast says, you have to have it in your mind that you're playing that day because it's tough to assume that you're not and then go out there, so we were all getting ready for the game, trying to stay loose in here. Stretching and doing whatever.

"I had never really been a part of anything like that. It was pretty crazy. We were ready to go, ready to play. I knew the game would probably be at least delayed longer once we saw the conditions of the outfield and how it was, but things like that happen and it's beyond anyone's control, I think. It stinks, but can't control the weather."

Everyone on the visiting side seemed to gain an even greater appreciation of the Camden Yards drainage system and a grounds crew led by Nicole Sherry.

"Obviously the warning tracks always take more time in every stadium to get ready, but yeah, they do a really good job there," Mancini said.

"It's tough. That's why sometimes you think it's convenient to have a roof over the stadium. It just can be tough sometimes. But again, it's out of our control, so you try not to worry about it too much."

David Hess starts Game 1 today - two days after he was supposed to be on the mound. Andrew Cashner starts Game 2.

Outfielder Mike Tauchman is the 26th man for the Yankees today. The Orioles haven't revealed their choice, but left-hander Josh Rogers was scratched yesterday from his start.

The Yankees acquired Kendrys Morales from the Athletics last night for a player to be named later or cash considerations.