The smoky haze that lingered over the Philadelphia area on Thursday didn’t stop the Phillies from taking the field.
After Wednesday’s game was postponed, the Phillies’ game against the Detroit Tigers began Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park. MLB was closely monitoring the air quality situation during the day, but as the air quality in Philadelphia improved, league officials decided to go ahead with the game.
“It’s always sunny in Philadelphia,” NBC Sports Philadelphia announcer John Kruk said at the start of Thursday’s broadcast.
MLB postponed one game Thursday — a matchup between the Washington Nationals and the Arizona Diamondbacks, scheduled to start at 1:05 pm at Nationals Park. Air quality continues to be poor in Washington, DC, which issued its first “code red” air quality alert since 2011.
The Nationals-Diamondbacks game will now take place on June 22.
On Wednesday, in addition to pushing the Phillies game, the league postponed a game between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox that was scheduled to be played at Yankee Stadium, where the orange sky resembles something out of a sci-fi movie .
» READ MORE: Air quality in Philadelphia: Maps, forecasts and latest update on cancellations
Philadelphia’s air quality Thursday morning was worse than Wednesday, though smoke from wildfires in Canada dissipated some as the day wore on.
Before Wednesday’s game was postponed, Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh told The Inquirer that the hazy air didn’t have much of an effect on his at-bats or his ability to track balls. But he didn’t see the upper deck of Citizens Bank Park as he wandered the outfield.
“It’s dramatically different from that,” Marsh said. “It’s like Gotham. It’s dark. The lights can’t really do their job.”
» READ MORE: Phillies playing in a smoke-filled ballpark: ‘It’s starting to smell like fire’
In addition to talking to medical and weather experts, MLB is also contacting clubs affected by wildfire smoke in Canada. On Wednesday, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski sided with health experts.
“I don’t know anything about air quality,” Dombrowski said. “I’m not an expert on that. So I have to look at how other people are guiding us, and this is a situation where MLB and the experts feel like it’s gotten to a point where it’s not healthy for people to be out there. So we will go along with what they say.”
If MLB decides to postpone Thursday’s game, the Phillies won’t have room in their upcoming schedule to recover. On Friday, they are set to begin a three-game home series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, immediately followed by a four-game road trip against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Phillies’ next scheduled day off isn’t until June 19.
The first game of the Yankees-White Sox doubleheader at Yankees Stadium started on time at 4:05 p.m. New York City’s air quality was better than Philadelphia for most of Thursday, but still listed in the ” unhealthy”.