Smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Chicago skyline on Tuesday, begging questions about the potential postponement of the Chicago Cubs-Philadelphia Phillies bout at Wrigley Field.
The city’s air quality was deemed “very unhealthy," putting the baseball game's status into question.
However, a little over three hours before the first pitch, the Cubs released a starting lineup for Tuesday's game.
In an interview earlier on Tuesday with 670TheScore that took place around noon, David Ross said that he expected the game to go on, despite the weather.
"I haven't heard anything yet about cancellation, so I would assume (we play),” Ross said via 670TheScore. “Usually, they put that on my radar pretty early. We are all go as of right now, but we’ll wait to see if things change, or what Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association say.”
NBC Chicago meteorologist Pete Sack said there’s also plenty of time for the weather to improve.
“One of the difficulties that we do have with this, however, is accurately predicting the amount of smoke that's going to be in the atmosphere just a few hours from now,” Sack said. “So it could ease up in time for the game at 7:05 this evening. The atmosphere could ease up, but we could still see a layer of smoke and haze. So it remains to be seen.”
Earlier this month MLB postponed some games on the East Coast due to smoke from the Canadian wildfires. That included a White Sox game against the Yankees that was supposed to be played in New York on June 7. That game was made up the next day.
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Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson released a statement as air quality worsened in the city recommending that children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and pregnant women “avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors." Johnson also suggested folks wear masks if they do need to go outside.
For all Chicago air quality updates, keep tabs on NBC Chicago’s live blog.
