Hurricane Helene's effect on MLB: Pivotal Braves-Mets series postponed due to storm
Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast on Thursday, and in the meantime, heavy rains and damaging winds are expected to hit parts of the Southeast, including Atlanta — home of this week's vital MLB series featuring the Braves and New York Mets.
The Braves and Mets are battling for NL wild-card spots and were scheduled to finish their three-game series on Thursday. Atlanta took the first game on Tuesday 5-1. By Wednesday afternoon, however, Major League Baseball announced that the final two games of the series had been postponed due to the storm.
The teams will play a doubleheader on Monday in Atlanta to make it up. Monday is the last open day before the AL and NL wild-card series kick off on Tuesday, as the regular season ends Sunday. The Mets will be in Milwaukee on Friday through Sunday, while the Braves are set to host Kansas City over the weekend.
As of Wednesday, the Mets hold one of the three NL wild-card spots, while the Braves sit a half-game out of a playoff spot. Monday's doubleheader could be critical in that wild-card race, though the games "will only be played if they matter to one or both teams for playoff reasons."
A rare High Risk of excessive rainfall is in place for the southern Appalachians Thursday-Thursday night where considerable flash/urban/river flooding and landslides are possible. pic.twitter.com/TgNhXXGSbc
— NWS Weather Prediction Center (@NWSWPC) September 25, 2024
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency on Monday, two days before Helene was upgraded to a hurricane. Hurricane Helene is expected to be a Category 3 storm when it makes landfall, bringing winds over 110 mph, as well as "life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and flooding rains to a large portion of Florida and the southeastern United States," according to the National Hurricane Center.
Atlanta is expecting thunderstorms and heavy rains by Wednesday afternoon, which threatened the 7:20 p.m. ET start time for the second Mets-Braves game. Thursday's scheduled series finale was a makeup game from a postponed date in April.
Bad weather forcing MLB to step in for an impacted game has happened before, as recently as this week. On Tuesday, the game between the Detroit Tigers and Tampa Rays at Comerica Park was moved up from 6:40 p.m. ET to 1:10 p.m. ET due to the threat of inclement weather.
