Welcome to the Florida State League…
On Sunday afternoon things for the Miracle were bright and sunny. They were fresh off a three-game sweep over the Charlotte Stone Crabs, and held a solid 5-0 lead over the Bradenton Marauders in the 8th inning.
And then came the first thunderstorm — provided not by Mother Nature — but by Bradenton’s offense. They put a 5-spot on the board against the Miracle ‘pen in the 8th inning. Then Nate Hanson crushed a solo home run in the ninth, which gave the Miracle a 6-5 lead, but the Marauders scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to hand the Miracle their first loss of the second half – snapping a four-game winning streak. Fort Myers was subsequently beaten 14-4 and 11-1 the next two nights by Bradenton, and then were swept by St. Lucie to lose six in a row.
Since the top of the eighth inning last Sunday, until today(Sunday July 4th) — I feel like this guy.
It figures that after having only one rainout, one suspended game, and two rain delays in the entire first half of the season that in the first two weeks of the second half would surpass those numbers with ease. In the last week, there has only been one day that Mother Nature hasn’t affected the team by rain, and how we avoided rain on Thursday was some sort of Miracle (pun intended).
Monday we sat in Bradenton for an hour and a half before starting a game at 8:45. Tuesday was delayed for only about 20 minutes, Wednesday and Thursday were rained out all together. Friday the team played their second double-header in a span of two weeks, and Saturday we didn’t start until about 8:40 with the game taking us into the wee hours of the night – finishing just after midnight.
Tonight in Jupiter, we we’re literally five minutes away from first pitch, and while I was doing my pre-game for the broadcast, expecting a nice smooth weather night away from SWFL — of course out of nowhere the tarp is rushed out onto the field. Within about ten minutes the sky went from looking peaceful, to an absolute downpour.
I never thought I would be saying this, but I when I go to bed tonight I will be wishing for hot, sunny, rainless weather for the next few days. Regardless of how muggy, humid, and uncomfortable it will get as a result.
Gotta love Florida in the summer….
UPDATE – Sunday’s game officially rained out. Another double-header for the Miracle on tap for Monday night.
miraclebaseball.mlblogs.com 
Sweeping the Stone Crabs is not the easiest of things to do, but I know that the Miracle are a pretty good team in their own right. Good luck in Jupiter!
http://raysfanboy.mlblogs.com/