A night after the Atlanta Braves offense embarrassed themselves in a rivalry game against the Philadelphia Phillies, mother nature decided to spare the Braves, at least for the night. Roughly four hours before the second game of the three-game series was set to take place, the Phillies announced the game had been rained out.
Instead of the struggling Braves offense having to face perpetual Cy Young runner-up Zack Wheeler, the team can take an actual night off, enjoy the Liberty Bell, climb the steps by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, or reflect on where the offense disappeared to after 2023.
The Braves and Phillies will have a quick turnaround on Thursday to make up for postponed game
Instead of moving the rainout to a later series, like the Washington Nationals did last week when their game against the Braves was rained out, the Phillies decided to go ahead and have the doubleheader on Thursday, May 28.
The game is a split doubleheader, with the first game taking place at 1:05 p.m. The second game will still take place as originally scheduled at 6:45 p.m.
Atlanta will keep AJ Smith-Shawver slotted to take the first game. However, Philadelphia decided to move Cristopher Sánchez, who was slated to take on Sale tomorrow, to face Smith-Shawver. This won't necessarily be a relief to hitters as Sanchez currently carries a 3.17 ERA through his first 10 starts this season.
With the Phillies moving Zack Wheeler to the nightcap, the Braves and Phillies will have the 2024 Cy Young winner and runner-up take the mound in the series finale.
The Braves don't necessarily need the rest, as the team will now have their fourth day off in the last nine days. However, they will likely not object to getting a little more rest after a grueling first half of May, where they played 17 games in 17 days.
Hopefully this rest day will have the team rejuvenated for tomorrow's action, as the Braves desperately need to get their offense back on track.