Braves-Mets PPD Friday; make-up date TBD

NEW YORK -- Like many New Yorkers, the Mets spent the soggy first night of their Memorial Day weekend indoors.

The Mets and Braves had their series opener on Friday postponed due to heavy rain over New York City. Continued rain is expected throughout the weekend, but the teams will attempt to play their nationally televised Saturday night game as scheduled at 7:15 p.m. ET.

“You can’t turn the switch off,” manager Luis Rojas said. “We’ve just got to get ready to play a game tomorrow. These are very important games. All games are important, but you’re facing your division rivals. You’ve got to prepare. These are the teams you see the most, so it’s a constant battle. For me, it’s 100 percent right now until they tell us we can’t play.”

The teams have not announced when they will make up Friday’s game, but Rojas indicated there will be a doubleheader during their July 26-29 series at Citi Field.

This is the second postponement in three days for the Mets, who also had their Wednesday game against the Rockies washed out at Citi Field. They made that one up as part of a single-admission doubleheader, which they swept on Thursday. The Mets have now had 10 games either postponed or suspended due to rain, snow or COVID-19.

“A lot of different things have stopped us along the way,” Rojas said. “At this point, we just take this as an opportunity to rest and come back tomorrow with our batteries recharged and ready to go, and play some ball against one of our division rivals.”

In many ways, the fact that the Mets have played the fewest games in Major League Baseball has worked in their favor, considering all their injuries. The Mets currently have 17 players on the injured list but should be healthier by the time they make up many of their postponed games. In particular, Pete Alonso, Luis Guillorme and Seth Lugo are all on track to return in the coming weeks. By late July, the Mets should have Michael Conforto, Jeff McNeil, Carlos Carrasco and many others back as well.

The Mets have also relied on their strong bullpen to take advantage of seven-inning doubleheaders, going 6-2 in such games so far this season.

“We can use it,” Rojas said of the extra time off. “Another day where the guys can rest their arms, bullpen-wise. … So yeah, we’ll take a day like this, since there’s no chance we could probably play because of the weather.”

Taijuan Walker had been scheduled to come off the IL to pitch Friday’s game for the Mets. He will instead start on Saturday, with Sunday’s starter to be determined. The Mets could simply push everyone back in their rotation, which would mean David Peterson pitching Sunday against the Braves and Jacob deGrom pitching Monday in Arizona. More likely, the Mets will keep deGrom in his original spot on Sunday to deploy him on turn against a division rival, while pushing Peterson back to Monday.

The Mets have not made an official decision on that yet.

Fans with tickets to Friday’s game may exchange them for comparably priced tickets to another 2021 home game at Citi Field, excluding the Sept. 10-12 Subway Series. If such an exchange is made for a higher-priced ticket, the face value of Friday’s ticket will be applied as credit toward the new ticket. Exchanges can be made at the Citi Field box office.