NEW YORK — The game between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets scheduled for Sunday night was postponed because of rain.
The teams will make it up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on July 26 beginning at 5:10 p.m. Both games will be scheduled for seven innings.
It was the second washout of the series and third in five days for the NL East-leading Mets in a season filled with interruptions from the very beginning.
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom (3-2, 0.80 ERA) had been slated to pitch for the Mets against Max Fried (2-2, 4.63) in a nationally televised game on ESPN. But with rain falling throughout an unseasonably chilly afternoon in Queens and a forecast of showers deep into the night, the game was called a little more than 90 minutes before the scheduled first pitch.
The teams were also rained out Friday night. That game will be made up in a single-admission doubleheader on June 21 starting at 5:10 p.m., also with seven-inning games.
New York won 13-2 on Saturday night, the only game of the scheduled three-game series that was played.
Atlanta, the three-time defending division champion, will now play a four-game series at Citi Field from June 21-23 and a five-game set in Queens from July 26-29.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said Fried would likely be pushed back to Tuesday at home against Washington, with Charlie Morton starting Monday evening in the series opener as scheduled.
“It gets messed up. Guys are pitching on way too much time off,” Snitker said. “But what can you do? You just deal with it.”
The depleted Mets (25-20) begin a nine-game road trip Monday night at Arizona, which had lost 13 in a row going into Sunday’s game against St. Louis. Mets manager Luis Rojas said deGrom will now pitch Monday, and first baseman Pete Alonso could come off the injured list along with reliever Seth Lugo and outfielder Kevin Pillar.
Despite having 16 players on the injured list, New York has won four straight overall and nine of its past 10 at Citi Field, where the Mets are 15-5 this year.
After getting rained out Wednesday night, the Mets swept a doubleheader from Colorado in a pair of seven-inning games Thursday. It was New York’s fourth doubleheader already this season — the Mets are 6-2 in those games — with three more scheduled, including one against Miami on Aug. 31 to finish an April game suspended by rain in the first inning.
New York has played 45 games, four fewer than any other major league team. The Mets have had seven games postponed by bad weather, plus the suspension against the Marlins. Even the first scheduled series of the season was wiped out in Washington because of COVID-19 issues for the Nationals.
After missing a couple of weeks due to tightness on his right side, deGrom returned from the injured list Tuesday night and struck out nine in five innings of three-hit ball against the Rockies, his first big league outing since May 9. The right-hander did not get a decision in New York’s 3-1 win.
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports