The Yankees never had a chance. Their game against the Pirates got postponed outright on July 21, and instead of a normal Wednesday, the Bronx now deals with a day-night doubleheader crammed into one afternoon and evening.
Jon Heyman confirmed the postponement and laid out the makeup schedule.
Yankees are postponed tonight. Two games tomorrow, 1 pm and 7.
Per Heyman, the Yankees and Pirates will now play twice on July 22, with first pitch at 1 p.m. and the nightcap at 7. That's New York's second doubleheader in a four-day stretch, which is its own special kind of misery for a pitching staff, but at least the schedule got sorted fast. Kevin Roth, the weather-tracking follow every degenerate baseball bettor has in their mentions during summer, was already zoomed out on the bigger East Coast picture before the Yankees game even got the ax.
Roth flagged East Coast games as trouble hours before first pitch.
Once the Bronx was scratched, Roth pivoted straight to Philadelphia and Boston, and that's where the day got genuinely chaotic. He initially liked Boston's chances for a late start with some clearing possible around 8 or 9 p.m., then reversed himself minutes later when the radar didn't cooperate, all but writing off the Red Sox game for the night. Philly told a different, messier story, with Roth walking through it in near real time as a fresh batch of rain rolled toward Citizens Bank Park.
Roth broke down the incoming rain band threatening the Phillies' start time.
That's the split-screen version of live betting on a rainy MLB night: Boston effectively shut down while Philadelphia hung in limbo, teams wanting to play but the sky not fully cooperating. Roth kept hammering the same caveat over and over, that even if a game gets in, it isn't a "safe" bet with more rain still lurking.
Roth confirmed the Phillies eventually got an 8 p.m. start, with rain still a factor in-game.
The Phillies ultimately pushed to an 8 p.m. start, but Roth's running commentary made clear it wasn't a clean go, just a window they were willing to squeeze through. And there was a bitter irony buried in the whole night, one Roth pointed out himself: the Yankees game, the first to get postponed, would've reportedly been the easiest of the bunch to actually get in. Baseball weather delays are always a little bit of a lottery, and Wednesday's East Coast slate was a reminder that the forecast can flip on you in the span of a tweet.