Danny Jansen is set to make Major League Baseball history on Monday at Fenway Park.
The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays will resume a June 26 game that was suspended for rain in what will be the first game of a doubleheader on Monday. Back in June, Jansen, then playing for the Blue Jays, was at the plate with one out and one on in the top of the second when the game was suspended. After a 1-hour, 48-minute delay, the Red Sox and Jays announced the game would pick up where it left off in a doubleheader on Aug. 26.
Jansen was traded to the Red Sox on July 27, opening the possibility that he could be on the opposite side of the field when the June 26 game resumed.
On Friday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed to reporters that Jansen will sub in to begin the continuation of the game, which would make him the first player in history to appear in the same game for both sides.
“I don’t even know how this works,” Jansen said when asked about the suspended game after he’d been traded to Boston. “I’ve heard about it a couple times. That’d be funky.”
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark dug into the matter and the uniqueness of the situation this past week:
GO DEEPER
Danny Jansen could make history by playing for Red Sox and Blue Jays in the same game
In 13 games for the Red Sox since the trade, the right-handed hitting catcher is batting .257 with a .794 OPS.
The Blue Jays will have some funky developments in the game, too. Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider said Friday that Jose Berríos will take the ball when the game resumes, but because Yariel Rodríguez was the starter before the game was suspended, Berríos will actually pitch in relief. It will be his first relief appearance since he threw 1 1/3 innings in relief in his final appearance of the season in 2017 — a span of 166 straight starts.
Meanwhile, Rodríguez will start the next day, on Tuesday, making him the starter on back-to-back days — sort of. Though the suspended game will end on Aug. 26, it will be officially recorded as having taken place on June 26 in the record books.
(Photo of Jansen: Paul Rutherford / Getty Images)
