![\"Grounds](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/blue-jays-phillies-delay-start-time-today.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays-Natonals game was delayed at Citizens Bank Park. Here is the reason for the delay and the latest update on when play will bekgin.<\/p>\n
Thunderstorms rolling through Philadelphia pushed back the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>\u2018 game against the Phillies Friday, delaying first pitch at Citizens Bank Park past its scheduled 6:40 p.m. ET start.<\/p>\n \u201cTarp is on here in Philadelphia and start of Blue Jays and Phillies will be delayed,\u201d reported She Davidi of SportsNet<\/a> in Toronto.<\/p>\n The AccuWeather forecast for<\/a> Citizens Bank Park showed thunderstorms through about 9 p.m. ET, and warned that<\/a> \u201cstorms can bring flash flooding and damaging winds.\u201d <\/p>\n But good news finally arrived at 7:36 p.m. with an announcement by the Phillies.<\/p>\n \u201cTonight\u2019s Toyota Phillies Wall of Fame ceremony honoring Chase Utley is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:50 p.m., with first pitch scheduled for 8:35 p.m.,\u201d the team announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cJust saw a bolt of lighting come down northwest of the stadium. The Phillies officially announced the delay, aded MetroPhilly reporter Shaun Nestor<\/a> at 6:03 p.m. \u201cIt\u2019s not raining here yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chase Utley<\/a> Wall of Fame ceremony and start of the Phillies game will be delayed,\u201d clarified Jeff Kerr pf ESPN Radio<\/a> in Philadelphia. \u201cThere are thunderstorms coming.\u201d<\/p>\n When the game gets underway at 8:35 p.m. assuming the new start time holds, the Phillies will not be wearing their Friday City Connect uniforms after all.<\/p>\n \u201cAt Bryce Harper\u2019s request \u2013 he texted owner John Middleton \u2013 Phillies won\u2019t wear blue city connect uniforms tonight. In honor of Alumni night and Chase Utley Wall of Fame honor, Phillies will wear traditional red pinstripes,\u201d reported Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n What a Delay Means for Blue Jays, Phillies<\/p>\n Under baseball\u2019s rules, a delayed game stays on today\u2019s calendar, with play resuming from the exact point of interruption once conditions clear, and tickets bought for tonight remain good<\/a> no matter how long the tarp stays down. A postponement wipes the game entirely and reschedules it, often as part of a doubleheader, with the decision resting first with the home club \u2014 the Phillies, in this case \u2014 before shifting to the umpiring crew once lineups are exchanged.<\/p>\n Philadelphia entered the night at 62-54, holding second place in the NL East, while Toronto sat at 54-62, well outside the playoff picture in the American League East. Bryce Harper has driven much of Philadelphia\u2019s offense this season, and the Phillies\u2019 lineup carries real postseason stakes into every game left on the schedule. Toronto, by contrast, is using the season\u2019s stretch run largely to evaluate its roster, with Kazuma Okamoto<\/a>\u2018s power bat among the bright spots worth tracking.<\/p>\n TORONTO BLUE JAYS STARTING LINEUP<\/p>\n SP: Jos\u00e9 Soriano (RHP, #40) \u2022 9-6, 3.29 ERA, 127 K<\/p>\n August 7, 2026 \u2022 Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA \u2022 6:40 PM EDT<\/p>\n # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Lineups subject to change. Brett Bateman making MLB<\/a> debut \u2014 no prior season stats available.<\/p>\n How the Weather Affects Blue Jays, Phillies Starters<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Soriano was lined up to start for Toronto carrying a 9-6 record and 3.37 ERA, opposite Philadelphia\u2019s Zack Wheeler, who entered at a dominant 10-2 with a 2.49 ERA. Wheeler in particular represents the kind of arm a contending team like the Phillies can\u2019t afford to mismanage, and a long delay raises real questions about whether he takes the mound at full strength or gets pulled in favor of protecting his workload for later in August.<\/p>\n Any extended wait forces both managers into tougher bullpen calculus, since starters who cool down during a delay often can\u2019t be fully re-stretched once play resumes. That dynamic matters even more for Philadelphia given its playoff push, while Toronto has more flexibility given its position in the standings. Both rosters are already managing notable injured-list absences, which only sharpens the stakes if tonight turns into a bullpen game for either club.<\/p>\n The broader forecast points to an unsettled night. Showers and thunderstorms remained likely into the evening, with some potentially severe and a heat<\/a> index that pushed past 100 degrees earlier Friday, according to the National Weather Service\u2019s Philadelphia forecast. Saturday brings more heat and humidity, with a high near 91 and additional storm chances arriving mainly between 3 and 5 p.m. Fans, players and both front offices are watching the same radar loop, waiting to see whether tonight\u2019s game gets finished as scheduled or spills into a much later night at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \n\t\t\tJonathan Vankin<\/a> JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist who covers MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, boxing, golf, and Olympic sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Newspaper and Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering the Olympics, pro baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty The Blue Jays-Natonals game was delayed at Citizens Bank Park. Here is the reason for the delay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":["post-261332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPlayer
\nPos
\nB
\nHR
\nRBI
\nSB
\nAVG
\nOPS<\/p>\n
\nNathan Lukes<\/a>
\nRF
\nL
\n5
\n18
\n0
\n.261
\n.677<\/p>\n
\nAlejandro Kirk<\/a>
\nC
\nR
\n4
\n16
\n0
\n.255
\n.698<\/p>\n
\nJes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez
\nLF
\nL
\n8
\n32
\n1
\n.268
\n.744<\/p>\n
\nGeorge Springer<\/a>
\nDH
\nR
\n12
\n36
\n7
\n.234
\n.714<\/p>\n
\nKazuma Okamoto
\n1B
\nR
\n24
\n70
\n1
\n.229
\n.742<\/p>\n
\nAndr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez
\nSS
\nL
\n7
\n41
\n15
\n.235
\n.634<\/p>\n
\nErnie Clement<\/a>
\n2B
\nR
\n9
\n38
\n4
\n.287
\n.726<\/p>\n
\nJosh Smith<\/a>
\n3B
\nL
\n1
\n8
\n3
\n.204
\n.549<\/p>\n
\nBrett Bateman
\nCF
\nL
\n\u2014
\n\u2014
\n\u2014
\n\u2014
\n\u2014<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/phillies-ex-yankees-prospect-mlb-debut.jpg\")
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