Rainmakers: Mets washed out for 3rd time in 5 days

The Mets really have improved — in how they handle rainouts.

New York’s finale of the four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies was postponed because of rain Thursday. Ace Jacob deGrom never warmed up for the Mets’ third washout in five days, a contrast to Marcus Stroman’s start against Miami last weekend starting in a shower and getting cut short by umpires after nine pitchers.

“If it’s something uncertain, you’re going to be careful,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said Thursday morning. “We don’t to lose any of our pitchers too early — we don’t want to lose Jake too early in the game. It happened to us on Sunday. We know that we made a big mistake there, but we’re paying attention now.”

The Mets headed to Denver, where a series opener against the Rockies was threatened by a forecast of 2 to 3 inches of snow on the Thursday overnight followed by a game-time temperature projected at 37 degrees.

“I think we made them aware that we weren’t going to hit on the field tomorrow,” Rojas said.

A steady rain began about 11 a.m. Thursday and was forecast to last all afternoon. The matchup between deGrom and Philadelphia’s Zach Eflin was called off about 50 minutes before the 12:10 p.m. EDT start.

New York rescheduled the rainout as part of a doubleheader on June 25 at 4:10 p.m. Both games will be scheduled for seven innings as part of pandemic rules.

Last Sunday’s game was suspended after a wait of 2 hours, 10 minutes and will be continued as part of a day-night doubleheader on Aug. 3. Tuesday’s game against the Phillies was rained out and made up as part of a doubleheader the Mets swept the following day.

Adding the opening three-game series at Washington that was put off because of a coronavirus outbreak among the Nationals, the Mets have played a major league-low eight games. They have a stretch of 16 games in 15 days from June 11-25, including a pair of doubleheaders.

“I don’t think it will be the first time ever that we’ll be facing something like that,” Rojas said. “Right now we can take advantage of the seven-inning games when you play a doubleheader. It comes in handy this rule.”