Washington (AFP) - Game three of the World Series between the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies was postponed from Monday because of heavy rain in the Philadelphia forecast, Major League Baseball said.
A statement issued by MLB shortly before the game was to have begun said it had been postponed until Tuesday "due to inclement weather and the forecast for rain throughout the evening."
MLB said the remainder of the best-of-seven championship series would be pushed back one day, with games four and five now scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday in Philadelphia.
Games six and seven, if necessary, will be on Saturday and Sunday in Houston.
While it wasn't yet raining when officials made the call to postpone, Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he thought it was the right move.
"Just looking at the radar, it looked like it was going to pick up over the course of the night and it looks like at 9 o’clock it's going to be raining pretty hard," he said."So, it's the right decision, really."
The Astros and Phillies are tied 1-1 after splitting the first two games in Houston.
J.T.Realmuto's homer in the top of the 10th inning lifted the unfancied Phillies to victory in game one, but the Astros rebounded with a victory in game two on Saturday.
Game three will be the Phillies' first World Series home game since 2009.They are 5-0 at home in this year's playoffs.
The game was the first World Series contest to be postponed since game six in 2011 between the St.Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said right-handed pitcher Lance McCullers would still get the ball for game three on Tuesday.
The Phillies said left-hander Ranger Suarez will now start game three instead of right-hander Noah Syndergaard, who was scheduled to pitch on Monday.
Astros rested, ready
For game four, the Phillies will send Aaron Nola to the mound against the Astros' Cristian Javier.
Baker said before the postponement that if there was a delay the Astros could potentially bring Justin Verlander back on regular to pitch game four, but they opted to go with Javier instead.
"I don't think we need to rest really right now," Baker said."We've had plenty of rest.We've had a lot of off days this last month.So, it's just a temporary postponement.We'll just take it as that and come out ready to play (Tuesday)."
The Phillies clinched the National League Championship Series with a win against San Diego in blustery, rainy weather, but Phillies relief pitcher Seranthony Dominguez threw three wild pitches in the seventh as he struggled to grip the ball.
Thomson said he was sure MLB didn't want a repeat of those kind of conditions in the championship showcase.
"You just couldn't keep the balls dry," Thomson said."It was just raining so hard.And I don't think MLB or anybody, Astros or us, we want to get into that scenario again."
The Phillies won the 2008 World Series with a game-five triumph that took three days to complete because of rain.
When that October 27 game was suspended after the top of the sixth inning it was the first game in World Series history not to be played through to completion or declared a tie.
The contest was finally resumed and completed on October 29.
