Weather postpones six MLB games

NEW YORK, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- Weather threw a curve at baseball Friday forcing postponement of six games with 17 days left in the regular season and pennant races moving toward a big finish.

Two of the six postponements came in New York.

In addition to the arrival of Hurricane Ike along the Texas coast, a wide band of rain stretching from the plains to the northeastern seaboard disrupted action.

The postponement of games between the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs scheduled for Friday and Saturday had already been announced Thursday because of the approaching hurricane.

As Friday evening progressed, rain postponed the Tampa Bay-New York Yankees, Minnesota-Baltimore, Detroit-Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee-Philadelphia and Atlanta-New York Mets games.

Doubleheaders were quickly scheduled for Saturday in all of those series with the exception of the Detroit-Chicago White Sox matchup. No makeup date was immediately announced in Chicago.

The weather delays affected pennant races in four of baseball's six divisions and in the wild-card battles in both leagues.