Mets home opener rained out, rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon

If you are planning to travel to Citi Field today to catch some baseball, please don’t. For the first time since 1997, the Mets had their home opener postponed by inclement weather.

With the forecast calling for potentially intense thunderstorms around 3:00 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., the team chose to push their home opener back by one day rather than risk the game (and the expected sold out crowd) being inconvenienced by the rain. As a result, the Mets and the Marlins will kick off their three-game series on Friday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. Citi Field. Tylor Megill is still expected to get the ball for New York, while Miami has yet to announce their starting pitcher.

A rain out on the home opener doesn’t happen often (1997 was the last time for the Mets, as previously mentioned) but MLB typically builds in an off day on the following day for such an occasion. With the pitch clock resulting in shortened games, some argued that it is like the rain might have had a minimal effect, and if this wasn’t the home opener, they probably would have played the game.

While the move is sure to disappoint (and potentially enrage) some fans, this is a difficult situation to predict and the team did well to alert fans on Wednesday, so they can potentially move around work plans to still attend the game. The Orioles and Phillies also rained out their home openers on Thursday. Among the festivities planned for Thursday Friday, the team is expected to honor Bob Murphy with a mark in the left-field stands and with his children tossing the first pitches.