Going into Wednesday's slate of games, the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves are tied atop the National League East standings. That's especially significant under the new playoff format because the top two division winners in each league get a first-round bye, and this year the winner of the NL East will be one of those two teams.
Those high stakes set the stage for a huge series that's scheduled for Truist Park this coming weekend. The Mets and Braves starting Friday are scheduled to meet for a three-game set that may well determine who wins the division flag in 2022. However, powerful and dangerous Hurricane Ian, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm on the west of Florida on Wednesday, may complicate those plans:
[❗6AM Update❗] Impacts from #HurricaneIan 🌀 will span well beyond the center of circulation. Extended periods of wind gusts (30+ mph) and heavy rainfall (1-4 inches) will be the primary hazards from early Thursday through early Sunday for north and central GA. #gawx pic.twitter.com/wqH2adQrAk
— NWS Atlanta (@NWSAtlanta) September 28, 2022
Because of the distinct possibility of heavy weekend rains in the Atlanta area, Major League Baseball is making contingency plans in case one of the biggest series of the regular season gets interrupted. Such plans are necessary because there's very little left of the regular season calendar. Of those plans, MLB.com's Anthony DiComo reports:
"Options include shifting Friday's game to a matinee and/or scheduling a split doubleheader on Sunday. Though not a desirable option, the teams could also make up one or more games on Thursday, Oct. 6, the day after the regular season is set to conclude, if those games are necessary to decide the NL East title."
DiComo adds that MLB is not presently considering moving the games to a neutral site. Of particular note above is the possibility that one or two games of the series could be shifted to Oct. 6. That's the day before the opening-round Wild Card Series begin, and the NL East runner-up will be participating in one of those series. That would obviously have implications when it comes to the Mets or Braves lining up their rotation for the best-of-three Wild Card Series.
A decision on how to proceed with the series may not be made until the morning of the scheduled opener on Friday.
