Mariners’ series vs Giants postponed due to air quality, moved to SF

Sep 15, 2020, 2:41 PM | Updated: 3:27 pm

Wildfire smoke made for poor air quality at the Mariners' T-Mobile Park on Monday. (Getty)

(Getty)

BY BRENT STECKER

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Mariners’ upcoming home series will have to wait a day, and it will no longer be played at home.

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The Mariners and San Francisco Giants’ two-game set, which was scheduled to begin Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park, has been postponed due to poor air quality in the Seattle area and will be moved to San Francisco’s Oracle Park. The series will now begin Wednesday and conclude Thursday, which was initially a scheduled day off the Mariners.

The series, which will air on 710 ESPN Seattle, will begin with Game 1 at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday (pregame show at 5:30) while Game 2 will be at 1:10 p.m. Thursday (pregame show at noon).

“Unfortunately, the air quality in Seattle has gotten worse overnight here at T-Mobile Park and it is not clearing at all today. Forecasters expect it to clear late Thursday and into Friday morning,” Mariners President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Mather said in a press release. “As always, the health and safety of the players, and our staff is our first priority.

“To assure the games could be played, the best solution was to re-locate to the Bay Area. We appreciate the Giants willingness to work with us on this challenge, and we look forward to returning to T-Mobile Park on Friday to host the Padres.”

The Giants hosted the Mariners in a two-game series last week, and smoke was an issue at that time as well as an orange haze made for a surreal environment (photos here). The air has significantly improved in San Francisco but deteriorated in Seattle since then.

The Mariners returned home after a series in Arizona to play a doubleheader Monday against the Oakland Athletics at T-Mobile Park, and the air was noticeably poor due to a confluence of smoke in Seattle from wildfires in Washington, Oregon and California.

At least two Oakland players voiced their concerns publicly about playing in the conditions Monday.

“I’m a healthy 22-year-old. I shouldn’t be gasping for air or missing oxygen. I’ll leave it at that,” Oakland pitcher Jesus Luzardo said to media members after starting Game 1.

Athletics reliever Jake Diekman took to his Twitter account after the games and tagged the official MLB account in noting the Air Quality Index in Seattle during the doubleheader. According to Airnow.gov, an AQI between 151 to 200 is considered unhealthy, 201 to 300 is very healthy, and anything over 300 is hazardous.