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 are scheduled to finish their three-game series on Thursday. Atlanta took the first game on Tuesday 5-1. It’s unclear if the teams will be able to play the final two games due to the poor forecast.
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.
MLB has not announced a contingency plan, with the regular season set to finish Sunday afternoon and AL and NL wild-card series scheduled to begin Tuesday. Should the Mets-Braves series be affected, the only current open day is Monday, one day before the postseason begins.
The Mets are away at Milwaukee on Friday through Sunday, while the Braves are set to host Kansas City over the weekend.
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, threatening the 7:20 p.m. ET start time for the second Mets-Braves game. Thursday’s scheduled series finale — a makeup game from a postponed date in April — could be impacted as well. MLB will reportedly work with both teams and independent weather sources before making any decisions on the rest of the series. Moving start times, playing a doubleheader, taking the games to a neutral site or using Monday’s open date are all potential options.
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.