MLB rain delay rules, and how long delays really last

Play was delayed in 5% of games, and 242 games were postponed for weather over six seasons. A game called before the fifth inning is no longer wiped out — it resumes later from the same spot.

Summarised from the 2025 Official Baseball Rules (Office of the Commissioner). Postseason games follow separate rules (Rule 7.02(g)).

• Before the game, the home club decides. The home team is the sole judge of whether a game starts in bad weather or on an unfit field, except the second game of a doubleheader, which the first game's umpire-in-chief decides (Rule 4.04(a)–(b)).
• Once lineups are exchanged, the umpire decides. From the moment the home batting order is handed over, the umpire-in-chief alone decides when play is suspended, resumed or called for weather (Rule 4.03(e)). Clubs can still act under a severe-weather and lightning policy filed with the league before the season.
• The 30-minute rule. The umpire-in-chief cannot call a game until at least 30 minutes after suspending play, and may keep waiting as long as there is any chance to resume (Rule 4.03(e)). There is no maximum delay length in the rules.
• When a game is official. A called game is a regulation game once five innings are complete, once the home team leads after four and a half, or if the home team ties it in the bottom of the fifth. Its score is the score when it was called (Rule 7.01(d)).
• Called before it's official: suspended, not erased. A game called before it becomes a regulation game must be scheduled to resume, preferably before the next game between the two clubs on the same grounds (Rule 7.02(a)–(b)). This replaced the old "no game, start over" rule that applied before 2020, as MLB's glossary notes.
• Called while tied, or mid-inning after the visitors go ahead. Also a suspended game that resumes from the exact point it stopped (Rule 7.01(d), 7.02(a)).
• Postponed games. Also scheduled to be played during a series between the clubs or on a mutual off day. If that isn't possible, the Commissioner's Office decides whether and when to play it (Rule 7.02(b)–(c)).
• Tickets. Rain checks and refunds are each club's own policy, not a playing rule — check the home team's ticket page.

"Recorded delays" is the delay time MLB logs in each game's official record. "Late starts" are single games whose first pitch came 15+ minutes after the scheduled time (doubleheaders and resumed games left out). MLB does not record a cause for each delay, so a small number may not be weather — at fixed domes and roof-closed games, delays were rare and short.

• Open-air parks: 689 delays in 10,445 games — 6.6% (95% CI 6.1–7.1%).
• Retractable roofs: 6 in 3,281 games — 0.2%. Close the roof and the problem mostly disappears.
• Raining at first pitch (1 mm+ in the game hour, our weather data, open-air parks): 49.8% of 233 games were delayed (95% CI 43.4–56.2%), against 3.5% of 9,072 dry games.

So even with real rain falling at the scheduled start, about half of games got through without a recorded stop — grounds crews and short showers matter as much as the forecast.

Delays plus weather postponements per 81 home dates, every park with 100+ games played since 2021.

Retractable-roof and dome parks sit at the bottom of the full list with almost no stoppages. Check the live forecast for any park on the MLB stadium weather pages.

Two different seasons of risk: April and May bring the most full postponements (cold, all-day rain), while July brings the most in-game delays — summer thunderstorms that pass through in an hour or two.

• 5h 00m — Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 2024-04-03
• 4h 33m — Progressive Field, 2022-09-04
• 4h 25m — George M. Steinbrenner Field, 2025-08-24
• 4h 22m — Target Field, 2025-06-26
• 4h 10m — Nationals Park, 2023-09-09
• 4h 08m — Truist Park, 2021-07-21
• 4h 08m — Petco Park, 2021-09-24
• 4h 02m — Busch Stadium, 2025-07-13

Also in the data: 30 games ended early for weather after becoming official, and 24 suspended games were resumed on a later date.

• All 14,859 scheduled regular-season games, 2021–2026, from the MLB Stats API: game status, postponement reason, official delay time, scheduled time and first pitch.
• Weather postponements are those MLB lists as rain, inclement weather, snow, wet grounds, cold or wind. COVID-19 and air-quality postponements are left out.
• Roof status and rain at first pitch from our own game records (Open-Meteo hourly data at each park's coordinates).
• Rules: 2025 Official Baseball Rules, Rules 4.03(e), 4.04, 7.01 and 7.02; MLB.com regulation game glossary.
• Proportions use Wilson 95% confidence intervals. 2026 covers games completed when the data was pulled.

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