Hurricane Ike, a colossal storm nearly as big as Texas itself, began battering the Gulf Coast on Friday, a day after officials postponed the first two games of the weekend series in Houston between the Astros and Cubs.
Meanwhile, rainy weather throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic led to the postponement of games all the way from Baltimore to New York. Another storm wiped out the White Sox-Tigers game in Chicago.
It was the most major league postponements in one day since six games were wiped out on April 15, 2007. Prior to that, there hadn't been that many since April 12, 1997, when eight games were postponed, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"This part of the year, normally it gets a little colder," Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez said. "This time of the year, that much rain -- I haven't seen it."
It also set up an unusually full slate of games for Saturday. If the schedule holds, there will be 12 games in the American League for the first time since Aug. 8, 1985, and 20 games in the majors for the first time since Aug. 4, 1974, according to Elias.
Baseball officials were anticipating that Sunday's series finale in Houston also might be postponed. One of the scenarios under consideration was to play a doubleheader Monday, and make up the third game on Sept. 29 if it's needed to decide a playoff berth. The Cubs and Astros have no common off days after Monday.
In New York, both the Mets and Yankees were postponed, setting up two doubleheaders Saturday. According to Elias, only twice before have Mets and Yankees both played two games at home on same day -- on Sept. 21, 1982, and April 13, 1997.
In Philadelphia, steady rain forced the postponement of a key matchup between the NL wild card-leading Milwaukee Brewers and the Phillies.
The game will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader Sunday.
In Baltimore, the Orioles-Twins game never started and was finally called after a delay of nearly two hours. They scheduled a doubleheader for Saturday.
In Chicago, batting practice was canceled but the grounds crew worked on the field to dry it out and it appeared the game would start on time. But three minutes before the scheduled first pitch, the tarp was rolled out and the field was covered again.
They also scheduled a doubleheader for Saturday.
In Boston, the Blue Jays and Red Sox played through the rain, and Boston beat Toronto 7-0 after the start was delayed 41 minutes.
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