Rain pushes Phillies-Astros to Tuesday, alters schedule for 2022 Fall Classic

The Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies will have to wait one more day to resume the World Series. Game 3 of the Fall Classic has been postponed due to rain, MLB announced Monday evening. It will instead be played on Tuesday and the rest of the series will be pushed back one day. There will still be an off-day for travel between Game 5 and, if necessary, Game 6.

Here is the new World Series schedule:

• Monday, Oct. 31: Postponed
• Tues, Nov. 1: Game 3 at 8:03 p.m. ET in Philadelphia
• Weds, Nov. 2: Game 4 at 8:03 p.m. ET in Philadelphia
• Thurs, Nov. 3: Game 5 at 8:03 p.m. ET in Philadelphia
• Fri., Nov. 4: Off day
• Sat., Nov. 5: Game 6 at 8:03 p.m. ET in Houston (if necessary)
• Sun., Nov. 6: Game 7 at 8:03 p.m. ET in Houston (if necessary)

Light rain started to fall at Citizens Bank Park around 6 p.m. ET and will increase in intensity around 9 p.m. ET, and continue until early Tuesday morning. Current conditions suggest the Astros and Phillies could begin Game 3 as scheduled, but once the rain intensifies later in the night, they would have to hit pause and the game would likely be suspended. MLB makes all weather-related decisions in the postseason and the league prefers to play an uninterrupted nine innings whenever possible. 

Here’s the hourly forecast via CBS News Philadelphia:

When the World Series finally resumes Tuesday, righties Noah Syndergaard (10-10, 3.94 ERA) and Lance McCullers Jr. (4-2, 2.27 ERA) are scheduled to be the starting pitchers.

Coincidentally enough, Philadelphia was the site of MLB’s most infamous World Series weather quandary. Game 5 of the 2008 World Series was suspended due to rain in the sixth inning. The Rays tied the game 2-2 in the previous half-inning while the clubs played through a downpour. Afterward, then-commissioner Bud Selig declared all World Series game must be a full nine innings.

“I was not going to allow that to happen,” Selig told the Associated Press when asked about the possibility of a rain-shortened World Series. “I have to use my judgment. The game would have been in a rain delay until weather conditions allowed us to continue. And that might have been 24 hours or 48 hours or who knows?” 

Game 5 continued the next day and the Phillies clinched their first World Series championship since 1980 thanks to Pedro Feliz’s seventh-inning RBI single.