Phillies news and rumors 6/5: Another home game has been flexed to ‘Sunday Night Baseball’

Citizens Bank Park has been the home of the Phillies since 2004. (Ty Daubert, Phillies Nation)

On Tuesday, ESPN announced that another Phillies’ home game has been added to the “Sunday Night Baseball” schedule. The game on Sunday, Sept. 1 against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park will now take place in the evening, instead of the originally scheduled 1:35 p.m. ET start time.

It will be the third time the Phillies will host a Sunday night game this season. They just hosted the St. Louis Cardinals this past Sunday night and did the same against the San Francisco Giants back on May 5.

As Matt Gelb of The Athletic notes, this should be the third and final home game that can be flexed to “Sunday Night Baseball”. It does not stop the Phillies from playing a Sunday night game on the road.

The game on Sept. 1 will be the fourth of a four-game set between the Phillies and Braves. It will also be the final game between the two division rivals during the regular season.

There’s plenty of baseball left to be played between now and then. But it is certainly within the realm of possibility that Sept. 1’s matchup between the two clubs will be very important. It will be their last chance to do head-to-head damage to the others’ respective win-loss record before the postseason. The Phillies currently lead the second-place Braves by seven games in the division standings. There’s no guarantee there will be that much distance between them by the time this game rolls around, though.

The Phillies and Braves opened the 2024 regular season in South Philly. Atlanta won the series two games to one. The next two series these teams play against each other will both take place at Truist Park in Atlanta. The first is set to take place from July 5 to July 7. The second is scheduled for Aug. 20 to Aug. 22.

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