Friday’s Phillies-Braves game postponed; doubleheader Sunday

The Phillies were postponed Friday night for the ninth time this season and they’ll make it up on Sunday by adding yet another seven-inning doubleheader to their schedule.

The scheduled game against the Atlanta Braves was rained out after a heavy thunderstorm moved through South Philly. Sunday’s first seven-inning game will start at 1:05 p.m., with the second game starting 40 minutes after the first game concludes. Of their 60 games this season, 14 are scheduled to be parts of doubleheaders.

Jake Arrieta will start Saturday night’s game against Atlanta right-hander Kyle Wright, the team’s first-round pick in 2017. The first pitch is 6:05. Vince Velasquez will start one of the games on Sunday. The Phillies have not yet announced a second starter for Sunday, but Spencer Howard is expected to make his major-league debut in the doubleheader.

The Phillies, due to the seven games that were postponed last week by COVID-19, already had five doubleheaders on their schedule. They’ll finish the season with 20 games in 18 days, including a seven-game series over five days in Miami. Major League Baseball is determined that every team plays a complete 60-game season.

“It looks packed,” second baseman Scott Kingery said. “It’s definitely going to be a little bit of a grind, but it’s a good thing that the doubleheaders are seven innings. Besides that, it’s going to be a long time before we have another off day.”