{"id":753960,"date":"2026-07-17T06:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/753960\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T06:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T06:36:24","slug":"mets-phillies-start-time-moved-mls-game-between-vancouver-chicago-ppd-due-to-wildfire-smoke-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/753960\/","title":{"rendered":"Mets-Phillies start time moved, MLS game between Vancouver-Chicago ppd. due to wildfire smoke"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 The start time for the MLB game between the New York Mets and the Phillies<\/a> on Thursday in Philadelphia was moved up an hour due to air quality concerns because of wildfire smoke from Canada<\/a> and northern Minnesota, and an MLS game in Chicago<\/a> was postponed.<\/p>\n

Heavy, pungent wildfire<\/a> smoke darkened skies in the U.S. from the Great Lakes to parts of the East Coast, reducing visibility and prompting warnings that breathing the air outside could be dangerous.<\/a><\/p>\n

Officials in many cities urged residents to stay inside or wear masks outside as air quality reached unhealthy to hazardous levels, meaning it\u2019s unhealthy for anyone, regardless of health conditions. The National Weather Service said a lingering high pressure system has trapped the smoke close to the ground.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia region is experiencing smoky and hazy skies. The game\u2019s start was moved to 6:10 p.m. EDT from 7:10 p.m. It is the only game on the big league schedule coming out of this week\u2019s All-Star break.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely different,\u201d Phillies first baseman Bryce Harper said on ESPN during the broadcasting of the game. \u201cNot the greatest idea, I guess, to come out here and play in this type of weather, but we\u2019re doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After his team\u2019s 4-1 victory<\/a>, Mets interim manager Andy Green was asked how the conditions affected the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they really did,\u201d Green said. \u201cI think it felt like they could have at any moment, especially as visibility got tougher. But, guys managed to see baseballs that I couldn\u2019t when they went up in the air as popups. So, good thing we\u2019ve got good athletes on the field that can see things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillies manager Don Mattingly said tracking fly balls later in the game seemed to become an issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem to be a huge problem,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cThe vision, later on, was a little bit like foggy conditions more than the air quality. As far as the guys were concerned (visibility) seemed to be the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second time wildfire smoke has affected a game in Philadelphia. In June 2023, a game between Detroit and Philadelphia was postponed due to poor air quality related to smoke from Canadian wildfires.<\/p>\n

Poor air quality due to wildfire smoke also forced the Major League Soccer game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Fire at Chicago\u2019s Soldier Field, along with a scheduled postgame concert, to be postponed. The game, which was expected to draw 40,000, will be made up on Oct. 6.<\/p>\n

Also, the Canadian Premier League postponed<\/a> Thursday\u2019s scheduled game between Forge FC and Pacific FC that was to be played in Hamilton, Ontario, due to \u201cworsening air quality issues.\u201d The league said on its website that conditions \u201cdeteriorated in the final hours leading up to kickoff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trinity Rodman, a member of the U.S. women\u2019s national team, said the smokey sky was difficult to deal with during Wednesday night\u2019s NWSL game between the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC at New York\u2019s Citi Field.<\/p>\n

Rodman said she wasn\u2019t a fan of the hydration breaks every 15 minutes in the game as the temperature reached into the 90s.<\/p>\n

\u201cAir quality was rough,\u201d Rodman was quoted as saying by The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cNot to make excuses at all, but I think on both sides we were all like, \u2018another break, another break, another break.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

A crowd of more than 42,000 attended the rematch of teams in last season\u2019s NWSL title game. The crowd was a record for a women\u2019s sporting event in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have to have a hydration break every 15 minutes, then we shouldn\u2019t be playing the game, and that\u2019s my opinion,\u201d Rodman said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, there\u2019s 40,000 people. It\u2019s a whole event, so it\u2019s really tough. It\u2019s just a really hard situation for everyone to work around.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 The start time for the MLB game between the New York Mets and the Phillies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[93511,52179,5,1207,138,9925,326,1726,5163,5786,1690,10217,61,1727,3838,144,25,185,93543,328,34980],"class_list":["post-753960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-air-quality","tag-andy-green","tag-baseball","tag-bryce-harper","tag-chicago","tag-don-mattingly","tag-general-news","tag-il-state-wire","tag-illinois","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-mets","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports","tag-trinity-rodman","tag-u-s-news","tag-wildfires"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116933937330471981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}