Major League Baseball

Hurricane Irene reshuffles calendar

Published Aug. 26, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

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Hurricane Irene is already leaving its mark on the sports world even before coming ashore.

Professional baseball games, the NFL, tennis matches and MLS games are being rescheduled as the Hurricane approaches the East Coast.

The Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins have rescheduled Saturday night's game to Sept. 15 because of Hurricane Irene. The clubs will play Saturday's 1:05 p.m. game, originally slated for Sunday, as scheduled.

The New York Mets also say they have postponed Saturday and Sunday's games against the Atlanta Braves because of Hurricane Irene. Both games will be rescheduled as a single-admission doubleheader on Sept. 8 beginning at 4:10 p.m.

The split doubleheader Saturday between the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles also has been postponed. The afternoon game will be held on Sept. 8, previously an off day for both teams. The time of that game will be announced at a later time. The game originally scheduled for Saturday night will become part of a split doubleheader on Sunday. The first game is slated to start at 1:35 p.m.

The Florida Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies game Saturday has been postponed by rain.

The game was originally scheduled for Sunday but was moved to Saturday afternoon as part of a split-doubleheader because of Hurricane Irene's expected path up the East Coast. No makeup date has been announced.

The night game was already postponed Friday night and it will be made up on Sept. 15.

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox moved Sunday's series finale against the Oakland Athletics to Saturday night as part of a day-night doubleheader.

"We felt it was necessary and prudent to move the Sunday game to Saturday," Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino said. "This will not only give us the best opportunity to play the scheduled games, but also help to insure that traveling conditions are safer for our fans."

The Giants and Jets have postponed their game preseason football game to Monday. Giants president and CEO John Mara said Friday that moving the game two days later was the best course of action for the safety of all.

The New Haven Open, the final WTA tuneup before next week's U.S. Open, moved its championship match at Yale to 1 p.m. from 5 p.m. Saturday to avoid the storm.

"Right now it looks like the hurricane is not going to hit until early Sunday morning," said Anne Worcester, the tournament's director. "But, it's not just the actual playing time of the final, but our staff has to break down the site, so it has a lot to do with their safety."

The US Open tennis tournament also was working on contingency plans to try to avoid problems from the hurricane.

As it is, rain on Thursday forced postponement of play in the tournament's qualifying rounds, and action was scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Friday, an hour earlier than originally planned. The tournament then will try to have winners play a second match Friday in hopes of wrapping up the qualifying that day so as to avoid having to play Saturday. If the qualifying isn't completed before more rain arrives Saturday, matches could be moved offsite to an indoor facility.

Major League Soccer also changed times or dates for three games scheduled this weekend.

The Philadelphia Union rescheduled Sunday's game against New England for 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The New York Red Bulls moved Sunday's game against L.A. Galaxy to 8 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 4 at Red Bull Arena.

And D.C. United moved Saturday's start time against Portland to 2 p.m. from 7:30 p.m. at RFK Stadium. MLS will continue to monitor the hurricane before making a final determination of the status of that game.

At the PGA Tour's The Barclays in Edison, N.J., the gloomy forecast trimmed at least 18 holes off the playoff event.

Slugger White, the tour's vice president of competition, hoped to complete 36 holes by Friday, and if the expected wind and rain holds off long enough, get through the third round Saturday.

No one was sure what to expect after that, if anything at all. White ruled out a 36-hole Saturday.

The concern is that about 10 inches of rain fell over the last few weeks and the course probably can't take much more. "If we get five or seven inches of rain here, we are probably dead in the water," White said.

What might help is that the next event, the Deutsche Bank, doesn't start until Friday because of its traditional Labor Day finish. Only PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has the authority to allow for a Tuesday finish if it comes to that. "I don't think anybody has any clue," player Charley Hoffman said.

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