ATLANTA – Cardinals fans have heard plenty about shadows and the problems they can cause during a late-afternoon baseball game. It looks like we’ll hear more about it today.
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones went out of his way during Friday’s pregame chat with reporters to talk about how much of a problem he expects the shadows to be for today’s 5:07 pm ET start.
"You could be looking at a race to score first,” Jones said. "I think that's going to be huge in this particular game where shadows play a big part, and some good back ends of the bullpen on both sides. So you very well could see whoever scores first win the ballgame.”
Asked further about the shadows, Jones said, "They're bad. They're bad. It will be usually about start time, normal start time, 7:05 is when you're actually able to see well. Obviously, if it's overcast a little bit, that helps. The lights will be on, that will help a little bit, but it's going to be tough. That's why I say if somebody can breakthrough early in the game, it's going to be tough.
"It's going to be a big advantage to score early, so we need to our formula for winning is trying to beat teams to seven innings and turn it over to a dominant bullpen. I think it's the race to score first today.”
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny acknowledged that however bad the shadows are, the conditions will be the same for both teams.
