BOSTON – The game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox scheduled for Friday night was postponed by rain.

It will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader today, with the first game beginning at 4:10 p.m. and the nightcap at 9:05 p.m.

Though the Yankees never took the field, they grabbed sole possession of first place in the AL East when Tampa Bay lost at Kansas City, 7-0. New York (94-65) is a half-game ahead of the Rays (94-66).

The Yankees and Rays have both made the playoffs, but they’re still jockeying for the division title and possibly home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. Tampa Bay has two games left in Kansas City, while New York now finishes the regular season with three games in two days at Fenway Park.

The scheduled game Friday night was called after a delay of 3 hours, 23 minutes. Andy Pettitte had been slated to start for the Yankees against Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. A. J. Burnett was expected to face right-hander Daisuke Matsuzaka in the second game.

Wakefield replaces an ailing Clay Buchholz. Buchholz, who is 17-7 with a 2.33 ERA, has stiffness in his lower back, the team said.

ADRIAN BELTRE, the Red Sox third baseman — and most consistent player — left Boston for Los Angeles Friday night to be with his wife Sandra, who was about to give birth to their third child.

Manager Terry Francona doesn’t expect him back for the season-ending three-game series. And Francona doesn’t know if Beltre ever will wear a Red Sox uniform again.

Coming off a mediocre season with Seattle, Beltre signed a one-year contract as a free agent with Boston, hoping to boost his chances for a lucrative, long-term deal after this season. The Red Sox, unsure if Beltre would rebound from his .265 batting average with eight homers and 44 RBI for the Mariners, didn’t want to make a multiyear commitment.

“He was pretty honest about what he was doing here,” Francona said. “He was coming kind of on a make-good (deal). He made pretty good.

“It worked out for everybody.”

Francona said he would like Beltre to return but doesn’t know what will happen.

Beltre played 154 games, many of them with a hamstring injury, has 28 homers with 102 RBI and leads the Red Sox with a .321 batting average.

MIKE LOWELL plans to retire after this season and the Red Sox will honor him before today’s game at “Thanks, Mike Day.”

The Red Sox obtained him from the Florida Marlins with Josh Beckett before the 2006 season and he was the MVP in the 2007 World Series, Boston’s second championship in four years.

“When he first came here (he was) very stabilizing,” Francona said. “07 was kind of the culmination of it. What he did in the World Series, regardless of whether he was the MVP or not, what he did was pretty special.”

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi was a catcher for New York in 1998 when Lowell was called up to the majors for the first time with them.

“When he got called up with the Yankees (I was) just thinking, what a great kid, a guy with a lot of heart that was eager to learn and he struck me as a special guy,” Girardi said. “Not only has he been a special guy in his career.

“He’s been a special player, and I think that people in Boston fell in love with this guy because of the total package you get when you see Mike Lowell.”