ATLANTA – For reasons of business, logistics and perhaps gamesmanship, the Braves did not want to shift start times, days or locations for their series against the Mets despite forecasts that make it iffy to play Wednesday night and even less likely to play a three-game series finale Thursday night.
MLB could have overridden any desire of either team and forced different logistics for the games and did not.
Wednesday’s scheduled 7:20 p.m. ET game is still set to be played, as of early afternoon, though it is pouring in the area.
So now with Hurricane Helene bearing down on the city, it raised the potential for the nightmare scenario of the clubs having to play a doubleheader Monday to determine playoff viability – a day after the scheduled part of the regular season ends and the day before the playoffs begin.
It is possible the identity of all playoff teams and their seedings are none after the games Sunday. But consider a few ugly possibilities now in play:
– The Mets and Braves are playing 18 innings Monday in Atlanta and one might have to fly to Los Angeles, San Diego or Milwaukee to begin the playoffs the next day to begin a best-of-three that is scheduled over consecutive days. Thus, 18 innings Monday at full throttle, a flight (perhaps to the West Coast) and having exhausted players trying to recalibrate for a playoff series. It also would force at least one higher-seeded team (maybe more depending on seeding) to wait until the night before to know its opponent.
– The Mets or the Braves finish the weekend knowing they are in the playoffs, but the other does not and neither does the Diamondbacks. Now, the Mets and Braves would have to come back for one or two games Monday and the team that already clinched a playoff spot will have no incentive whatsoever to play its best players or go hard in the game – while the Diamondbacks watch helplessly from afar.
Remember that in some ways this trouble all began April 10 when a game was rained out at Truist Park that the Mets did not think needed to be postponed. The Mets, however, then did not want to return for a single game on a mutual off-day during the season and asked that it be tacked on to when they returned again to Atlanta.
For all involved that unfortunately coincides now with Helene. Georgia governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Tuesday to brace for the storm, which is forecasted to dump large amounts of rain beginning Wednesday and then intensify Thursday with dim chances of playing a game.
MLB was hoping that a game could be played Wednesday – even with starts and stops – and that, at worst, a single game would be perhaps needed Monday.
If the game has no playoff implications Monday, it would be up to the Commissioner Rob Manfred to decide if the two teams need to return to complete the 162-game schedule, which obviously any playoff-bound team would not want to do.
Spokespeople for MLB, the Braves and the Mets all offered no comment on how this point was reached and what is next.
But background conversations with involved personnel indicated that basically the Braves were expecting large attendance for the three games (it was 40,103 at Truist Park for Tuesday’s series opener, won, 5-1, by Atlanta) and did not want to forego the gates nor work through the logistics of moving personnel such as security, concessionaires, etc. to other dates or start times.
The Braves start their home games at 7:20 p.m. not earlier, for example, because there is a flow problem to get people in and out of The Battery area after the standard workday and before a game.
The two teams had a common off-day Monday. The weather was such that a doubleheader could have been played Tuesday. The Mets pitched the idea of moving up the start time Wednesday before the forecast worsened. In the most drastic move, the series could have been relocated to an empty park not under threat of the storm, such as in Texas.
But MLB did not force a change. The league had a much easier decision in moving the start time of Tuesday’s Rays-Tigers game from 6:40 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. because both teams approved of the change. It helps that the Rays are not in contention and the two teams are not in the same division.
The Mets and Braves are in the NL East, battling for a playoff spot with one possibly missing altogether and do not exactly have great love for each other. Thus, the Mets have certainly wondered about gamesmanship here that notably would allow likely NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale, coming off of a game in which his fastball average dropped two mph, to have an extra day of rest before starting Wednesday and then be in play to start on regular rest Monday.
However, with the concerns that the Wednesday game could start and stop, who knows how long a starter could go? Plus if Wednesday and Thursday are rained out, then Sale and Max Fried would start over the weekend against the Royals and not be in play to start Monday for Atlanta.
The Braves, though, do not have to leave Atlanta for that final regular-season series – or game(s) Monday if necessary. The Mets were making plans about how to escape a storm to get to Milwaukee for the weekend, plus facing the potential of having to return to Atlanta – all of which would be a competitive disadvantage.
