April showers lead to May flowers but baseball fans often pay the price for Mother Nature's weather patterns in the first month of the season.
The Northeast is set to get deluged with some rain in the middle of the day on Sunday, which led the Boston Red Sox to push back the start time of Sunday's matinee against the Detroit Tigers.
New Tigers-Red Sox start time for Sunday's game at Fenway Park
The #RedSox have moved the start time of their game tomorrow, Sunday, April 19, against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park from 1:35 p.m. to 4:35 p.m. pic.twitter.com/I0zpLgxzMN
— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 19, 2026
Boston announced on Saturday night that first pitch for Sunday's game, which was originally scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET at Fenway Park, will be pushed back three hours. The change was made in coordination with Major League Baseball, which advised the Red Sox to move the game back to avoid the bulk of a rain storm set to hit the area during the scheduled game time.
Any fans holding tickets to the 1:35 p.m. game will be allowed to use them for the rescheduled start time of 4:35 p.m. With the Tigers in town through Monday for the annual Patriot's Day matinee, it made sense for Boston to play things safe with the weather even though this is Detroit's only trip to Fenway during the regular season.
Early-season weather shifting MLB schedule for Red Sox and northeast teams
The nature of baseball's modified schedule, which sees all 30 teams play each other during the season, has made it quite difficult to accomodate weather-related issues. Since most teams only visit a city once, teams will often look to do whatever they can to get games in so they can avoid the hassle of figuring out a makeup date.
The New York Yankees, who are also in the same situation as Boston, approached their weather issues in today's series finale with the Kansas City Royals differently. Instead of pushing the game back a few hours, the Yankees decided to open the gates at Yankee Stadium as scheduled at noon, warning fans on social media that they do not intend to start the game on time.
All Yankee Stadium Gates will open for today’s Yankees-Royals game (Sunday, April 19) to fans with valid tickets at 12:00 p.m.
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 19, 2026
As of 10:25 a.m., please be advised we do not anticipate starting today's game on time due to the current forecast of inclement weather. We will provide…
The travel situation is a bit different for the Royals and Yankees, with Kansas City due to fly home to take on Baltimore on Monday night. New York has a day off on Monday before heading up I-95 to take on the Red Sox on Tuesday, so perhaps the Yankees are hoping they can begin play a bit earlier than 4:35 in order to help Kansas City get out of town in a more expedient fashion.
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