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Red Sox-Brewers rained out at Fenway Park

May 17, 2008 - 2:16 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- Mother Nature was the only winner Friday night as rain postponed the opener of the interleague series between the Milwaukee Brewers and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

The game was called at 8:30 p.m. EDT after a delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes.

The combination of network TV commitments over the weekend and interleague scheduling produced the most unusual of doubleheaders for Saturday.

Friday's game will be rescheduled as the nightcap of a split doubleheader beginning at 8:35 p.m. Fans holding tickets for Friday's game will be admitted to only the second contest.

"(The weather) was progressively getting worse, and it was supposed to get worse tonight," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "That's when they started doing some checking on some other options."

Saturday's early game is on Fox at 3:55 p.m., while Sunday's contest also is scheduled to be televised nationally on TBS at 1:35 p.m. Neither game could be adjusted.

"There were some television issues and you have to go through the league," Francona said.

Friday night's scheduled starters will pitch Saturday's first game, with Milwaukee's Jeff Suppan opposing Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka. The nightcap pits Dave Bush against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Both general managers conferred before the game was called Friday to go over options for rescheduling.

"(Red Sox GM Theo Epstein) called (Brewers GM) Doug Melvin just as a courtesy, and they were on board with what we're doing, but I don't know if either club really had an (option)," Francona said.