Hurricane Irene already is leaving its mark on the sports world even before coming ashore.

Professional baseball games, the NFL, tennis matches and MLS games are being rescheduled as the hurricane approaches the East Coast.

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that it has moved Sunday’s scheduled game between the Florida Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies to Saturday afternoon at 1:05, creating a day-night doubleheader. The Boston Red Sox also moved Sunday’s series finale against the Oakland Athletics to Saturday night as part of a day-night doubleheader.

“We felt it was necessary and prudent to move the Sunday game to Saturday,” said the Red Sox president and CEO, Larry Lucchino. “This will not only give us the best opportunity to play the scheduled games, but also help to insure that traveling conditions are safer for our fans.”

The Giants and Jets moved up the starting time of their exhibition football game five hours to 2 p.m. Saturday. John Mara, the Giants’ president and CEO, said the game was rescheduled so fans would be able to get home safely after the game.

The New Haven Open, the final WTA tuneup before next week’s U.S. Open, moved its championship match at Yale University to 1 p.m. from 5 p.m. Saturday to avoid the storm.

“Right now it looks like the hurricane is not going to hit until early Sunday morning,” said Anne Worcester, the tournament’s director.

“But it’s not just the actual playing time of the final, but our staff has to break down the site, so it has a lot to do with their safety.”

The U.S. Open tennis tournament also was working on contingency plans to try to avoid problems from the hurricane.

As it is, rain on Thursday forced postponement of play in the tournament’s qualifying rounds, and action was scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. today, an hour earlier than originally planned.

The tournament then will try to have winners play a second match today in hopes of wrapping up the qualifying to avoid having to play Saturday. If the qualifying isn’t completed before more rain arrives Saturday, matches could be moved offsite to an indoor facility.

Major League Soccer also changed times or dates for three games scheduled this weekend.

The Philadelphia Union rescheduled Sunday’s game against New England for 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7 at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The New York Red Bulls moved Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Galaxy to 8 p.m. Tuesday Oct. 4 at Red Bull Arena.

And D.C. United moved Saturday’s start time against Portland to 2 p.m. from 7:30 p.m. at RFK Stadium.

MLS will continue to monitor the hurricane before making a final determination of the status of that game.