Major League Baseball scheduled Wednesday for the Yankees-Chicago White Sox game at 7:05 p.m. postponed.
The game is scheduled to be the first of a singles doubleheader on Thursday. Yankees Said. That could change if air quality remains unhealthy. Manager Aaron Boone said he had heard conditions were likely to improve, but said, “Obviously we’ll be here and see how it goes.”
The Phillies-Detroit Tigers game in Philadelphia was also postponed to Wednesday. WNBA games Between Minnesota Lynx and Liberty in Brooklyn.
MLB’s decision to postpone the game was made at the league level based on input from teams, players’ unions and weather experts, but was made at 4:30 p.m. ET in consideration of air conditions in the Bronx. rice field. Register with 413 Based on the Environmental Protection Agency Air Quality Index, according to AirNow. AQI in Philadelphia was 233.
The Yankees and White Sox played a night game on Tuesday, with an AQI of over 150 on the first pitch and over 200 after the game. (101 to 150 are classified as unhealthy for sensitive groups. 151 to 200 are unhealthy, 201 to 300 are very unhealthy, and anything over 301 is dangerous.)
“One of the things we did immediately was cancel batting practice. We were going to do what we had to do indoors,” Boone said. “I don’t know why I wanted to walk outside, but I just went outside and saw the orange coming through the door and I was like, ‘Wow!'”
Despite Boone’s decision to cancel Wednesday’s batting practice, several players, including starter Carlos Rodon, who is looking to return from the disabled list, trained on the field at Yankee Stadium.
“I was really just focused on throwing the ball over the plate,” Rodon said of the training. “I wasn’t thinking about the breathing part. But the air is thick, that’s for sure. I don’t think it’s easy to see a fly ball.”
Other MLB games in the Northeast weren’t postponed to Wednesday because conditions in those cities were less severe. The Pirates played an afternoon game against the Oakland Athletics in Pittsburgh, with AQIs above 150 at various points. The Guardians played a night game against the Boston Red Sox in Cleveland, and the AQI was expected to be around 100.
Yankees players and coaches downplayed the difficulty, despite numerous complaints from journalists and fans on social media over the decision to play all games on Tuesday. Third baseman Josh Donaldson said it looked foggy but “nothing out of the ordinary,” and Boone likened it to the smog teams are accustomed to playing in Southern California. .
A White Sox player said he felt some sort of ill effect after Tuesday’s game.
“As you know, this morning I had a cough and a sore chest, but it wasn’t too bad,” Andrew Bourne told reporters on Wednesday. “Some of the balls went up and it felt like you lost the ball for a second. It was a little hazy and you kind of lost it in the light. It was hard to see for sure.”
A situation similar to what happened this week happened on the West Coast in 2020. That season, the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners had an AQI of 220 on the first pitch in a doubleheader in September, but this was also due to the wildfires, and only MLB received criticism from players and fans. Move the Mariners’ next two games to San Francisco.