NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 31: The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox stand for the national anthem during their home opener at Yankee Stadium on July 31, 2020 in New York City. The 2020 season had been postponed since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

Will the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies ever play each other? We hope so, but it won’t be on Monday.

The never-ending saga of when the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies will play continues. Monday’s game—that was never officially on the schedule—is reportedly postponed.

The good news here is that there is room for MLB to work something out next week. The two teams are reportedly set to play each other “all week” and they can always play a doubleheader on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Tuesday seems like a bit of a rush for the Phillies, considering they will have had more than a week off from games, but Wednesday or Thursday could make sense.

If a doubleheader happens, that would seem to take away one of New York’s biggest advantages—the deep bullpen. Doubleheaders are only going to be seven innings long so teams won’t necessarily need to dip into their bullpen much to survive. Of course, the shortened games would give the Yankees a good opportunity to go with a bullpen game.

Either way, dissecting the competitive disadvantage that the Yankees have in a doubleheader is a bit misleading. The Yanks will have a major advantage against the Phillies when they finally do play due to the long layoff the Phils have had.

But with all this said, we still don’t know if this series is actually going to happen. As the situation with the St. Louis Cardinals continues to deteriorate, it feels like MLB is one more outbreak from a full-on shutdown.

UPDATE

So, it’s back on. Stay tuned to ESNY for more updates because we guarantee this story is far from over.

NY/NJ hoops reporter (NBA/NCAA) & sports betting writer for XL Media. Never had the makings of a varsity athlete.