It's that time of year. Baseball in April. That no doubt means some cold, wet weather is putting a damper on the early part of the Philadelphia Phillies' 2025 season. We're only into the second week of games, with the Phillies visiting the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, and we have our first rain delay of the young season.
The Phillies have been lucky with the early-season weather so far. The only real threat they've faced was avoiding having to postpone their home opener last week. Today in Atlanta, they weren't so lucky.
With six innings of play in the books between the Phillies and the Braves on Thursday, it appears that we’ll have to wait to continue this one.
Phillies-Braves rain delay: Restart time update
The Phillies and Braves managed to get the final game of their three-game series underway at the scheduled 7:15 p.m. ET start time, but only got through the sixth inning before the weather forced the players off the field with the teams tied 1-1.
The Braves officially announced the rain delay at 8:45 p.m. ET. Unfortunately, they didn't provide a tentative restart time, so we'll have to hang tight for an update.
10:52 p.m. ET Update: The Braves announced that the game will resume at 11:30 p.m. ET.
Barring any further changes in the weather, tonight’s game is slated to resume at approximately 11:30pm ET. #RestorationOfPlay pic.twitter.com/YtRFw6Pr4p
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) April 11, 2025
9:45 p.m. ET Update: An hour into the rain delay at Truist Park, The Athletic’s Matt Gelb shared what could be considered an “update.”
According to Gelb, all indications are that the Phillies and Braves will wait out the rain for “many hours” to get the game in.
We're an hour into the rain delay, and all indications are the two teams will wait many hours to resume this game sometime tonight.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) April 11, 2025
Phillies-Braves rain delay: NL East rivals clash in first series of the season
The Braves came into the series with an appalling 1-8 record but took the opener 7-5 on Tuesday. The Phillies, who began the series 7-2, bounced back with a 4-3 win on Wednesday.
Taijuan Walker impressed for a second straight start yesterday. He pitched a scoreless 4 2/3 innings, working around five hits and three walks. First baseman Bryce Harper and shortstop Trea Turner each had timely home runs. José Alvarado got four outs to record his second save of the year.
The Phillies entered the series finale between these two NL East rivals up six games on the Braves in the division standings. Thursday's pitching matchup featured Phillies left-hander Jesús Luzardo up against young Braves righty Spencer Schwellenbach.
Luzardo came into today's game 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA after shutting down the Los Angeles Dodgers over seven innings in his last start. The Braves cobbled together one run in the first inning, and Luzardo's night is likely finished with six innings of work under his belt. He recorded six strikeouts while giving up six hits and one walk.
Schwellenbach has looked impressive to begin the season, but Kyle Schwarber took him deep for a solo home run, his sixth of the season, in the third inning to tie the game. That's where we stand right now.
While we'd certainly like to see these two NL East rivals decide the rubber match on Thursday, for now, we'll just have to wait and see if the weather allows them to get this game in today.