ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets clash this week at Truist Park in a three-game series that comes with major implications for the postseason.
The two teams are among three, along with the Arizona Diamondbacks, battling for two spots. Right now the Mets are two games ahead of the Braves in the Wild Card race, and Arizona is one-and-a-half games ahead of Atlanta.
The third and final game in the Braves-Mets series looks like it could be in the path of a storm, however.
Here's what we know:
Braves-Mets Thursday night game & Helene
- Timing: The third game of the series on Thursday night, September 26, is scheduled to start at 7:20 p.m. ET.
- Storm outlook: Potential Tropical Cyclone 9 is currently projected to form into a hurricane, which would be named Helene, in the Gulf sometime as soon as Wednesday and then track toward Florida's Big Bend region on Thursday. Its projected path then comes straight up toward north Georgia.
- Rain by gametime?: It's still too early to be specific about the exact impacts, but tropical rain will impact the Atlanta area Thursday and Friday in association with the tropical system, making a full baseball game at its scheduled start time -- if it can even start -- dicey in Atlanta.
- Extra wrench: There's also a chance Wednesday's game could get impacted by rain, but that would be unrelated to Helene.
- Anything they can do?: It's possible that MLB could move up the start time of the game, but there are also chances for rain earlier in the day Thursday. If they can't play, it's likely they'd reschedule the makeup game for Monday, after the Braves host a season-ending home series over the weekend with the Kansas City Royals.