Hurricane Helene’s effect on MLB: Pivotal Braves-Mets series could be impacted

Hurricane Helene is expected to make landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Thursday, but in the meantime, heavy rains and damaging winds are expected to hit parts of the region, including Atlanta — home of this week’s vital MLB series featuring the Braves and the 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 night. Atlanta took the first game on Tuesday 5-1, but it’s unclear if they will be able to play the final two games with a 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 on Sunday afternoon and AL and NL wild-card series scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Should the Braves-Mets series be affected, the only current open day is Monday, one day before the postseason begins.

The Mets are away at Milwaukee Friday through Sunday, while the Braves are set to host Kansas City over the weekend.

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 Braves-Mets 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 in this situation.

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.