For the second time in three days, the Phillies and Mets are beating the weather to the ballpark. Saturday’s game at Citizens Bank Park has been pushed up one hour, from 4:05 p.m. ET to 3:05 p.m. ET, with rain in the forecast for later in the evening.
The announcement came around 11:20 a.m. ET, first reported by Matt Gelb of The Athletic on Bluesky. It marks the second start-time adjustment of this series — Thursday’s opener was also moved earlier for the same reason.
The Phillies are trying to get nine innings in before the skies open up. You move first pitch up an hour, you buy yourself a little daylight, a little margin. Maybe you dodge a suspension mid-game. Maybe you avoid a doubleheader Sunday that nobody wants — not the players, not the grounds crew, and certainly not the bullpen coach who’d have to piece together 18 innings of relief.
The Sporting News, via Yahoo Sports, confirmed the reasoning: inclement weather approaching the Philadelphia area, and the organization’s preference to play through before it arrives. No air-quality concerns this time — just a good old-fashioned summer storm rolling in.
This is Philadelphia’s first series back from the All-Star break, and the schedule-makers already had these two NL East rivals lined up for a weekend set. The Phillies and Mets have enough bad blood and divisional stakes that neither side wants a makeup game tacked onto the back end of the season, when the standings are tight and every roster move matters.
Weather delays are part of the deal in July baseball. You hydrate, you wait, you adjust. But moving the start time twice in one series tells you the Phillies’ front office is watching the radar close enough to know the window is narrow. Get the game in, get it official, and let the rain do what it’s going to do after the last out.
First pitch is now set for 3:05 p.m. ET at Citizens Bank Park.