Yanks, O's watch hurricane

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NEW YORK -- Worried about Hurricane Irene possibly affecting games this weekend, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles discussed playing a doubleheader Friday, but the Orioles said that isn't going to happen.

The teams are currently scheduled to play five games from Friday to Monday, with a doubleheader on Saturday.

"Just business as usual and you hope for the best," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said following his team's 22-9 win against Oakland. "Hopefully our game times don't coincide with the hurricane but I'm not so sure how it's not going to. Make the best of it, that's all you can do."

While the Friday forecast calls for partly cloudy conditions, according to weather.com, the hurricane is supposed to dump rain on Baltimore Saturday and Sunday, which could affect three of the five scheduled games.

A spokesperson for the Orioles said that the teams will not play a doubleheader Friday.

"All games are going to go on as planned and we have not moved anything around yet," Orioles director of communications Greg Bader said. "We don't know the full extent of the forecast yet. We may lose a game, but we have Sunday night and Monday afternoon to make up games if we need to. Nothing has been done preemptively."

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Girardi had said he expected to hear by the end of Thursday if a doubleheader would happen Friday, and he expressed concern about making up games if they are washed out.

"I just don't know what you do if you don't. If we play one game tomorrow, you get rained out Saturday, you get rained out Sunday, obviously you think you have a doubleheader Monday, but you still have two games to make up," Girardi said.

"I don't know how you make them up. I don't know if they're made up at our ballpark. I don't know if they are made up in December," he joked. "I don't know."

The Yankees have just two off days left this season, so missed games could mean those are lost or doubleheaders pile up. It's not an ideal scenario for a veteran team like the Yankees, according to Girardi.

"Doubleheaders, with a veteran team, you can't play guys every day where if you're playing every day, maybe you just sit one guy," Girardi said. "It is a concern because you don't want games piled up because fatigue and injuries are a concern."

If the Yankees would have played a doubleheader Friday, Girardi said A.J. Burnett and Ivan Nova would have started for the Yankees. Burnett is projected to start Friday night's game regardless of the weather, while Nova would be bumped up one day. Nova would be pitching on normal rest, though.

With regards to the rest of his rotation and how weather could affect it, Girardi said he will have to take it day by day. The weather could possibly affect the return of starter Freddy Garcia, who is slated to be activated off the disabled list on Saturday to start a game in the doubleheader.

"There's a ton of scenarios so we're going to have to take it day by day and probably be somewhat flexible," Girardi said.

Matt Ehalt is a regular contributor to ESPNNewYork.com.

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Matt Ehalt

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