MOOSIC, Pa. — That old saying about the promise of seeing something new at the ballpark every day? It’s true.

Anyone entering PNC Park extra early on Sunday would have seen a helicopter hovering 15 feet above the water-damaged outfield in an attempt to save the scheduled doubleheader between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

“It was incredible,” said PawSox infielder Jeff Natale. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I was out here taking pictures.”

As it turned out, the aerial assault on the soggy sod was in vain. After two hours of extreme blow drying, and another hour of deliberation involving club officials and the grounds staff of the New York Yankees, the games were postponed.

The teams will try again Monday, field conditions permitting, to play two, with first pitch scheduled for 5:35 p.m. Saturday’s game, which had also been postponed, will be made up as part of an Aug. 1 doubleheader, during Pawtucket’s final visit of the season.

The sun-drenched days off left Pawtucket first baseman Paul McAnulty scratching his head.

“We play when it rains,” he said, “and when it’s a beautiful day, we don’t.”

The heart of the matter lies in the outmoded outfield drainage system, which dates to the opening of the ballpark in 1989, known then as Lackawanna County Stadium. The park featured an artificial surface. Two years ago, the synthetic turf was replaced with grass. But in an effort to cut costs, the existing drains were left to handle the increased water load.

As a result of recent heavy rains, the outfield problems, including a patch in shallow right measuring 30 feet long by 10 feet wide, have made playing any games a chancy proposition. For the Yankees, that has meant a possible 50-percent chance of “drain.”

“It’s been a sad decision to postpone these games,” said Kristen Rose, the president of the SWB Yankees. “We’ve tried everything. We’ve been digging holes. Adding tiles. We replaced 14,000 square feet of sod. There’ve been a lot of ongoing efforts to try to offset the drainage problems. It‘s a difficult situation because we want to be playing baseball.”

Rose, who is in her first year with the club, was reluctant to speculate on whether the costs of all the remedial measures exceed the what a new drainage system might have cost two years ago.

“I have no idea,” she said. “The county made the decision to put in a field that would have a short term-life expectancy. Maximum 3-to-5 years. That decision was made in part due to economics, and in part (because) the feeling at the time was there would be a new stadium by now. Part of that decision was to leave existing drainage in place. It’s reached the point where it can’t take the water anymore.”

The New York Yankees, of course, have a strong interest in the well-being of their players. Rose said that she has been keeping the Bronx Braintrust up to speed on the field conditions.

“They are absolutely in the loop,” said Rose. “We’re all working together to see what we can do, understanding that the players’ safety is a priority. We can’t risk having somebody injured because the field is not what it needs to be.”

That thought was echoed by PawSox infielder Ivan Ochoa.

 “You don’t want to play on that,” he said. “You could get hurt.”

UP NEXT: RHP Michael Bowden (3-4, 3.39) is set to face Scranton RHP Ivan Nova (1-0, 0.00) in Monday’s opener. Lefty Charlie Zink (4-7, 4.48), will start the nightcap against SWB’s LHP Kei Igawa (6-3, 3.80).