BALTIMORE -- Hurricane Floyd provided the Oakland Athletics with another obstacle in their bid to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1992.

Steady rainfall forced the postponement of Wednesday's game between the Athletics and Baltimore Orioles, and the expected full-force arrival of the hurricane also caused Thursday's game to be called off.

There was also concern that Oakland might have a tough time getting out of Baltimore on Thursday evening.

The games probably will be made up as part of a doubleheader Sept. 23, an off-day for both clubs. Oakland would have to fly in from the west coast after playing an afternoon game against Minnesota, while Baltimore would arrive from Texas after facing the Rangers in a night game on the 22nd.

That's not exactly the perfect scenario for an Oakland team that fell 3½ games behind Boston in the AL wild-card race.

"That'll make it difficult, going from the West Coast to here and back to Texas," Oakland manager Art Howe said. "It's tough to win a doubleheader if they're both on the line and their rotation might not be to our liking. But that's the way it goes. ... Nothing worth happening comes easy."

The Athletics had a decided edge in Wednesday's pitching matchup -- Oakland had Tim Hudson (10-1) against 20-year-old Matt Riley, who was to be making his second major league start.

Orioles general manager Frank Wren said the league will determine when to hold the makeup games. The only other possibility would be at the end of the season, if the games had an impact on the playoff race.

"I'd just as soon come Thursday, I guess," Howe said. "Positives? There are none. But if it comes at the end of the season, you know you're playing the games for a reason."

If there's one positive for the A's, it's that Baltimore is currently the hottest team in the league. The Orioles have won eight straight, including a 13-6 blowout over Oakland on Tuesday.

"They've been playing good lately, so it might help us out," said first baseman Jason Giambi.

Howe said Hudson would pitch in Oakland's next scheduled game, Friday night at home against Kansas City. Omar Olivares will start Saturday.

If nothing else, the A's will be well rested by the time that series gets underway.

"A couple of days off might come in handy. We've been going at it really hard," Howe said. "The bumps and bruises you acquire during the season -- they're in the clubhouse walking around. It wouldn't hurt for them to heal up a little."

The Orioles will use Scott Erickson, Sidney Ponson and Mike Mussina in their weekend series in Anaheim.

The postponements temporarily halted Cal Ripken's run toward 3,000 hits. The Orioles' third baseman has 11 hits in his last six games and needs 16 in the next 17 games to get his 3,000th career hit this season.

"You can't control the weather, can you?" Ripken said. "I've also missed a lot of games to a couple of injuries, so I want to play as many as I can."

Orioles manager Ray Miller said Ripken will not be omitted from the starting lineup for the rest of the season.