Opening Day between Red Sox and Yankees postponed to Friday

After a long a winter for baseball fans that included, more than anything else, a focus on labor relations between the players and league, not to mention everything else going on in the world outside of baseball, we are more ready than ever for regular season baseball to get underway. Unfortunately for Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees fans, we’ll have to wait another day. The two rivals were scheduled to start their season and have their Opening Day on Thursday, but rain forecasts down in the Bronx have taken that off the table. The Yankees announced Wednesday morning that the game will be postponed and played on Friday, which had been a scheduled off day. First pitch is still set for the same time at 1:05 PM ET.

This doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, and even Alex Cora had acknowledged this possibility as long as a week ago. The schedule makers put in an off day after Opening Day for exactly this scenario, so there won’t be any Opening Day doubleheader, at least as long as Friday stays relatively clear, which it should.

This does, however, alter some potential plans for the Red Sox, who no longer get an off day right at the start of the season. This could, among other things, affect how they use Garrett Whitlock on Opening Day as he is expected to need to be ready behind Rich Hill every five days. Boston now plays six games in a row — three in New York, and three in Detroit against the Tigers — before getting a day off on the 14th ahead of their home opener on the 15th against the Minnesota Twins.