Why Thursday's Yankees-Astros game starts at 5:05 p.m.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone walks to the dugout after a pitching change during the sixth inning against the Detroit Tigers in an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Friday, May 3, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
If you have tickets or plan to tune into Thursday’s Yankees-Astros game at Yankee Stadium, remember the first pitch will be thrown at 5:05 p.m.
Why 5 and not 1, 4 or 7?
“I don’t know,” general manager Brian Cashman said on Wednesday.
Luckily, manager Aaron Boone did know. Thursday’s game is the last one of the Yankees’ current homestand (i.e., “getaway day”).
The Yankees will fly after the game to Tampa, Florida, to face the Rays starting Friday night. The Astros will fly to Detroit to visit the Tigers.
So the teams will (hopefully) get to their destinations at a more reasonable hour than if they had played at 7 p.m., as the Yankees did on April 25 on getaway day before they had to play in Milwaukee the next night.
A 1:05 p.m. start would have made the arrival time in the next city even more reasonable. But for TV viewing and ticket-selling reasons, teams prefer to play at night (or, in this case, night adjacent).
What about the threat of shadows bothering hitters as the sun sets over the stadium? Could that be a factor when the Yankees face Houston righthander Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter against Toronto on April 1?
“I’m not sure,” Aaron Judge said. “I’m not sure how many games we’ve had at 5 this year yet. The 4 o’clock games are usually the worst. So I’m not sure.”
One potential mitigating factor when it comes to shadows: The forecast as of Wednesday afternoon called for light rain in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon.
A rain delay could also spoil the teams’ quick getaway plans. Oh, well.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
