MLB reschedules three games in California in anticipation of Hurricane Hillary impact

Three Major League Baseball games originally scheduled to take place in California this weekend have been rescheduled. The league is making an adjustment to the schedule due to the forecast for Hurricane Hilary.

As of Friday, Hurricane Hillary was considered a Category 4 storm. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks planned to wrap up their four game series with the San Diego Padres in California on Sunday. While the Rays were set to the play the Dodgers in Los Angeles and the Marlins were going to face the Los Angeles Angels.

All of those teams will now be playing doubleheaders on Saturday.

“I’m very grateful that they were proactive in the thought,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. 

“It’s certainly going to be an inconvenience for some people that had Sunday tickets, but to at least get ahead of it made sense to me. … This is crazy. A hurricane, Southern California, this is very unprecedented, clearly. I just want to make sure we get ahead of it, people get safe and it passes us by.”

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The first game in San Diego begins at 12:10 p.m. local time, and the second is scheduled for 5:40 p.m. The opener at Angel Stadium starts at 1:07 p.m. local time, and the nightcap is scheduled for 6:07 p.m. 

The games at Dodger Stadium are scheduled for 12 p.m. and 6:10 p.m.

“I’ve lived here 52 years, I’ve never heard something like this,” Angels manager Phil Nevin said. “Part of me is like, ‘Wow.’ Part of you is excited to see what goes on with these things, but I’ll be honest, the more I read about and hear about it, I get a little bit nervous, too.”

Hillary grew in strength early Friday before losing some steam in the afternoon, with sustained winds falling from 145 mph (230 kph) to 130 mph (215 kph). 

It was forecast to still be a hurricane when approaching Mexico’s Baja California peninsula on Saturday night, and a tropical storm when approaching Southern California on Sunday.

No tropical storm has made landfall in Southern California since Sept. 25, 1939, according to the National Weather Service.

“To be completely honest, I didn’t even know hurricanes were an option out here,” Rays pitcher Zach Eflin said. “I didn’t find that out until today. I just pray it will be a tropical storm by the time it hits the land here.”

Elsewhere in California this weekend, the NFL has two preseason games on the schedule. One at in Los Angeles as the Rams are set to host the Raiders on Saturday. The Chargers are preparing to welcome the New Orleans Saints to SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

The league has yet to provide any update on the status of those two games.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.