BOSTON -- Long before Monday morning, Red Sox ownership, management, players and fans knew that Opening Day at Fenway Park was in jeopardy because of the possibility of bad weather.

With the exception of the schedule makers for Major League Baseball, everyone's predictions came true when the Red Sox were forced to postpone Opening Day against the Rays because of rain. As a result, the rematch between the 2008 ALCS opponents will be played at 4:06 p.m. on Tuesday.

Starting pitchers for both games remain the same, with Josh Beckett going for the Sox and James Shields getting the nod for the Rays.

Red Sox brass met early Monday morning and made the decision at 9:30 a.m. to postpone the game for a few different reasons, according to team president/CEO Larry Lucchino.

"The weather forecasts were consistently dire," he said. "Not just our own weather service, but also five or six others that we consulted with. It was going to start around noon and get worse and worse all day. The probability to get an official game in - much less a complete game - was very remote, if not impossible."

Because the Red Sox were starting at home in the first week of April this season, a scheduled day off on Tuesday was inserted. Red Sox officials wasted little time deciding to postpone.

"Because it was Opening Day, we thought we should let people know as soon as possible, given the special arrangements people make for Opening Day."

Monday's start time was originally 2:05, but the Sox thought it best to have the makeup begin at 4:06 on Tuesday in order to give fans more time to reschedule in hopes they can attend the game.

"This was an effort to enable people to re-juggle their schedule and perhaps get some of the fun of Opening Day tomorrow," said Lucchino.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona and his players knew on Sunday that a rainout was a possibility, so they prepared accordingly.

"The communication was pretty good. It's hard when you wake and the sun is shining and you feel like you're going to play, but you also know there are a lot of fans that are taking work off. I'm sure it's difficult and I think we handled it pretty well," Francona said.

It was not raining Monday morning, so the majority of the Red Sox players took advantage of the break in the weather and took batting practice on the field.

"The more we can stay on a regular schedule, the better off we'll be," added Francona.

Beckett was informed of the postponement about five minutes before he arrived at the ballpark, and was able to throw in the bullpen.

The question is why wouldn't the clubs begin the season at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg instead of here? Especially since the Trop is a domed stadium.

"It's very weird, very weird. We definitely wouldn't mind being at the Trop right now, because we wouldn't have this problem," said Tampa's Shields.

Even Rays manager Joe Maddon was scratching his head.

"You looked at the weather maps, you didn't need to be a weather genius to understand that this day was going to be bad. That's why [the off day on Tuesday] was built in. It's just unfortunate -- I know the weather's really good at Tropicana Field today," he said.

"It's kind of difficult to understand, whereas we have a building with a roof on it, and we're like a couple hours from where we just concluded spring training, and so are they, that we would have to come up here to do this, that's all. That's the part that's a little confusing," added Maddon. "I have no idea why, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it, it's just that it's a little strange."

When the Sox conducted their workout on Sunday at Fenway Park, the weather was beautiful for this time of the year. A lot of players and management staff were joking that the game should have been played on Sunday due to Monday's forecast.

"We were all walking around saying, 'Oh, why can't we have this weather [Monday]?' So it's very unpredictable," said Lucchino. "Our preference will be to open on the road and get an extra week of time to get the weather to come around in New England. It is disappointing, but we've waited a long time for Opening Day through a long, tough winter. I guess we can wait another 26 hours."

jmcdonal@projo.com