We’re all finished for the night at Nationals Park, where St. Louis takes a rain-shortened 4-1 victory. The game was finally called at 11:40 p.m. after a 90-minute rain delay. It was the second rain delay of the evening. The first one began in the top of the fourth inning and lasted 76 minutes. The second delay began with a runner on first in the top of the seventh inning.
Umpires were all set to allow play to resume after the second delay – an expected 11:25 p.m. start time. But after the grounds crew got the tarp off the field and spent 20 minutes applying drying agent to the infield dirt a final burst of rain caught them off guard. A good 10 minutes passed with the tarp rolled up by the Nats’ dugout as the infield quickly turned to mud. The field was finally deemed unplayable.
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Adam Wainwright (11-6, 2.95 ERA) earns the win for St. Louis (52-46). He allowed just one run on eight hits and struck out seven batters. Collin Balester (0-1), making his first start of the season, takes the loss for Washington (28-67). Alberto Gonzalez had an RBI double for the Nats in the sixth inning. Nyjer Morgan was 2-for-3 with a pair of singles. Adam Dunn produced two singles and a double and scored a run.
Rick Ankiel homered for the Cardinals, who gave slugger and NL MVP favorite Albert Pujols the day off. Mark DeRosa had an RBI ground out in the first inning and Nats reliever Tyler Clippard walked in a St. Louis run in the fourth. Joe Thurston added an RBI double for the Cardinals in that frame.
No surprise that a team enduring such a miserable season would not get any breaks from Mother Nature, either. Here are the Nats’ rain-delay stats this season. And trust us – they’re as ugly as anything you’ve seen on the field. This game, in fact, originally was scheduled for May 3rd. They waited almost two hours to call it that night. The makeup? Two hours and 46 more minutes of waiting….and waiting…You get the point. In 16 rain-delayed or postponed games this season the Nats have sat through 30 hours, 31 minutes of delays. You can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the list in full…
April 10 at ATL — 122 minutes
April 20 vs. ATL — 163 minutes
April 21 vs. ATL — 61 minutes
May 3 vs. STL — 116 minutes (before postponement)
May 5 vs. HOU — 76 minutes
May 16 vs. PHI — called after 5.0 innings, after 90-minute delay
June 3 vs. SFG — 226 minutes (before postponement)
June 4 vs. SFG (Game 1) — 36 minutes
June 4 vs. SFG (Game 2) — 67 minutes (called after 6.0 innings)
June 9 vs. CIN — 107 minutes
June 10 vs. CIN — 130 minutes
June 18 at NYY — 326 minutes
June 29 at FLA — 37 minutes
June 30 at FLA — 89 minutes
July 1 at FLA — 19 minutesJuly 23rd vs. STL – 166 minutes
