With rain in the forecast throughout the morning and afternoon Thursday and a built-in off-day Friday specifically for this purpose, the Phillies' season opener against the Braves has been postponed by a day.
Phillies Opening Day 2024 will be Friday at 3:05 p.m. on NBC10 against the visiting Atlanta Braves.
MLB provides teams a buffer during the opening weekend with a scheduled off-day. It often proves necessary in at least one or two cities, as it did a year ago when the Phillies were forced to move their season opener back a day because of a similar forecast.
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These first three of 162 games are pretty important. Last season, MLB's schedule changed so that teams play only 13 games against each division rival compared to 19 prior. There are only four series against each opponent, so the Phillies and Braves have limited opportunities to make up direct ground on one another in what figures to be a two-horse NL East race.
The teams match up in the opening series, then not again until July 5-7 in Atlanta.
The final two series come over two weeks in late August. The Phillies are in Atlanta Aug. 20-22 and host the Braves Aug. 29-Sept. 1.
Two of the main projection systems have the Braves winning the division comfortably. Pecota projects the Braves to go 101-61 and win the NL East by 16 games. Fangraphs gives Atlanta an 89% chance to win the division and the Phillies a 7% chance with the highest likelihood in the National League to earn a wild-card spot (48%).
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Worth considering: Many Braves performed at their peaks in 2023.
Matt Olson had 15 more home runs, 16 more walks, 19 more hits and drove in 28 more runs than ever before. Being on a much better team obviously helps, but is he going to have another 54-homer season?
It's hard to call anyone other than Ronald Acuña Jr. the best all-around player in baseball right now. Is he going to go 40-70 again with the highest OBP in the league?
Olson played 162 games last season and Acuña 159. They not only performed better than ever before, they were as available as they've ever been.
And it was far from just those two.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies had a career year. Shortstop Orlando Arcia had a career year. Catcher Sean Murphy had a career year. Designated hitter Marcell Ozuna had a career year. Bryce Elder pitched over his head as a rookie before faltering late.
Can they all do it again?
There's no denying the Braves are going to be an elite team in 2024, but the Phillies have a loaded roster as well and don't want to see that group win its seventh straight division. It proved not to matter in the postseasons of 2022 or 2023 when the Phillies sent the Braves packing in the NLDS, but it's still a goal.
"I'm tired of seeing the Braves win the division," J.T. Realmuto said last week on 94 WIP. "Every year, we're 10 games back not even with a chance. That's absolutely our first goal, to win the division and try to dethrone those guys. They've had such a good run at it, they've been such a good team in the regular season, nut we feel we're every bit as good as them. There's no reason we shouldn't be able to compete with them for the division."
It all starts this weekend.