PITTSBURGH -- — The game between the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates scheduled for Monday afternoon has been postponed due to rain.

The teams will play a split doubleheader Wednesday. The first game will be played at 12:35 p.m., with the second game set for 6:35 p.m.

The unexpected day off gives the NL East-leading Mets a chance to take a breath following consecutive losses to Washington over the weekend that allowed Atlanta to trim New York's lead to just one game with a month to go.

Both teams decided to push their scheduled starting pitchers for Monday and Tuesday back a day.

New York's Taijuan Walker (10-3, 3.45 ERA) will now face Pittsburgh's Mitch Keller (4-10, 4.43) on Tuesday.

New York ace Jacob deGrom (4-1, 1.98), who was originally scheduled to start Tuesday, will now start one of the two games Wednesday. Chris Bassitt (12-7, 3.32) will start the other game. There was no immediate decision on what order the pitchers will throw.

Pittsburgh will start Bryse Wilson (2-8, 6.12) and Yohan Oviedo (2-1, 2.86) in some order on Wednesday.

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