Tuesday night's series opener against the Giants was one of the worst displays in weather management in recent memory for the Atlanta Braves. Despite a steady downfall of rain, first pitch took place at the scheduled 7:15 p.m. start time. Unfortunately, the rain got so heavy that the infield dirt quickly became unplayable.
After just an inning and a half of action, the game went into a lengthy weather delay. The hope was for play to resume after a couple hours, but mother nature had other plans and the game was eventually postponed after a miserable three-plus hours at the ballpark.
Tonight's forecast gave everyone a sense the rain would dissipate shortly after the first pitch. The rain held steady and proved to be stronger than envisioned. By that time, the infield was a mess. When Weiss and Vitello met on the field at 9:30, the thought was the game would…
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) June 17, 2026
Braves had a forgettable night in weather delay management on Tuesday
The return of Drake Baldwin got off to a hot start, as the Braves' backstop blasted MLB's longest home run on the season in the first inning. Unfortunately, that is where the good news from Tuesday night stops. The two teams played for just another half inning, featuring some shaky Grant Holmes pitching, and an injury to Michael Harris II, before a delay took place ahead of the bottom of the second inning.
Atlanta's grounds crew rushed out to pour diamond dry on the infield as the third base area was quickly puddling up due to the steady rain. The original thought was that the diamond dry would work well enough to keep play going. The expected weather forecast was for the rain to subside shortly after first pitch, but that moment never came.
As the grounds crew applied the diamond dry on the Truist Park infield, the rain continued and progress was never really made. After an extended period of this, the game officially went into a rain delay. Reports then came out that the game was hoped to be resumed around 10 p.m. However, less than 40 minutes later the game was officially postponed.
After the game, MLB vice president of umpire operations Matt McKendry said, “What was showing up on radar didn't match what we were actually seeing there at the ballpark.” Obviously the weather did not match what was anticipated, and in the end both teams and fans paid the price.
Now both teams are faced with a double header on Wednesday. Braves manager Walt Weiss announced that the team will cover the remaining seven innings of game one with their bullpen, and rookie JR Ritchie will start the night game. Luckily, each team does get to call-up a pitcher for their "27th man" on the day of a doubleheader. Regardless, both teams burned a starting pitcher for an inning of work, and it could have been avoided if the weather management had been better.
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