Rain Reschedules Saturday Night’s Game to Monday Evening

The Atlanta Braves are not going to be able to play tonight's game, but it'll give them a chance to build in some rest for their rotation

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

The Atlanta Braves will not play baseball today. 

Due to inclement weather in the area that is projected to continue long into the evening, Major League Baseball has postponed Atlanta’s scheduled contest against the San Diego Padres to Monday evening. 

It’s a simple adjustment for the rotation: pushing everyone back a day. Atlanta’s already announced that they will start Bryce Elder on Sunday night, and it’s believed that the Padres will do the same with planned starter Yu Darvish. 

Tonight’s game is officially moved to 6:20 PM ET, with the first game going off as scheduled at 12:20 PM ET. The timing of that doubleheader means that Atlanta will need to travel late in the evening to arrive in Chicago for Tuesday’s series opener versus the Cubs. 

There’s a chance that Atlanta sticks with scheduled starters Reynaldo López and Chris Sale for Monday’s doubleheader, but it’s doubtful. With seventeen games in seventeen days, the Braves don’t have the benefit of off days to build extra rest in for their starters, a practice they’ve aggressively followed so far this season. López and Sale have combined for only one start on regular rest, belonging to Sale. Every single López start has been on either five or six days of rest, with one coming on seven. 

Due to having a doubleheader, MLB rules allow teams to call up a designated 27th man for the day - Atlanta could very well use a starter from Triple-A Gwinnett and push either López or Sale to Tuesday in Chicago to give them additional rest. AJ Smith-Shawver started today as planned for Gwinnett, and Dylan Dodd could be held back from Gwinnett’s planned game on Sunday in anticipation of having him start one of the two games on Monday in Atlanta.