Today's scheduled game against the Pirates has been postponed due to today's expected heavy rain.
No makeup date has been announced, but Pittsburgh returns to town July 1-3. A doubleheader on Saturday, July 2 is a possibility.
This is already the fourth Nationals game this season to be postponed due to rain.
UPDATE AT 2:25 P.M. -- If you haven't heard this news yet: Jordan Zimmermann, today's scheduled starter, will be skipped over in the rotation due to today's rainout. There's nothing wrong with Zimmermann, it's just an opportunity for the Nats to limit his innings count, something they've been planning to do all year. So Tom Gorzelanny will start tomorrow night's game in New York, with Livan Hernandez following on Thursday. Jason Marquis, John Lannan and Zimmermann will then pitch in Baltimore next weekend.
In other news today, the Nationals have placed left-hander Oliver Perez on the roster at Class AA Harrisburg. Perez, signed to a minor-league contract in March after getting released by the Mets (who are paying his entire $12 million salary), had been pitching at extended spring training in Viera.
64 comments:
The Blue Jays released The Chief.
When it rains it pours.
They should do a day/night doubleheader on Friday July 1st as payback for the Monday game the Nats had to endure in Pittsburgh.
I also want to commend ownership for cancelling early. This is the 2nd time they have made this kind gesture to the fan base. I know it costs teams in the wallet cancelling but it was the right thing to do with the ugly forecast.
There is no rain on the radar for several hours. The game should have been played.
Woo Hoo! Series sweep!!!
I agree with the early cancel... it was the humane thing to do.
SCNatsFan said...
Woo Hoo! Series sweep!!!
I agree with the early cancel... it was the humane thing to do.
If it was actually raining or was going to rain this would have been a good decision. Otherwise, if someone from the Nationals had gone to the NWS to look at the radar they would have seen that the skies were clear for hundreds of miles to the south and east which is the direction from where the rain was to comm.
http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=dox&product=N0R&overlay=11101111&loop=no
Harmon Killebrew has died. Sad.
It may be too early in the forecast, but can they cancel LaRoche's contract, or at least re-write the terms of compensation?
Jus' kiddin'! (sorta)
God bless the fat kid.
Doc said...
I love his glove, but waiting until July for your 1st baseman to start hitting is a bit ungainly. Torn labrum aside, why is it that it takes LaRoche so long to get going? Your 1st baseman has to produce at the plate. For most teams the season is over by July. I guess like when Zimmerman returns it will be like getting two good FAs, one a 3rd baseman, the other a DH...
Well, look at it this way... all of Lee, Pena and LaRoche are battling to see who the worst signing was. No matter which of the three we signed the results would seem to be about the same.
Hope some of the players took advantage of the off day and went rockfishing on the Cheasapeake.
Interesting, Jordan Zimmermann won't pitch tomorrow in NYMets as he will now miss a turn in the rotation to limit his innings.
Steve M. said...
Good. Looks like Zimmermann will be around until mid-September...
Rest in peace Harmon Killebrew. Led AL in homers in 59, 62,63,64, 67 and 69. Aka "The killer" "The Fat Kid"
Getting mighty dark and windy now, downtown ...
I disagree. LaRoche has probably saved as many runs with his glove as he's cost us with his bat. I have a really good view from where I sit (Sec. 130) and I can tell you the TV doesn't do justice to how wild some of those throws to first are.
He's frustrating me with how awful at the plate he's been but man am I glad to have him there over Dunn. Very underappreciated defensively.
You can add The Big Donkey to the list of underperforming 1B men (Lee, Pena and LaRoche). Although Dunn seems to be winning the Battle of the Medoza Line with LaRoche.
@Anon 12:25 --
I'm at work in Arlington and it was just pouring rain out. The radar I looked at shows nothing but green stuff headed our way for the foreseeable future. I'm sure that if they didn't call the game when they did and waited until there were 2 or 3 hours-long rain delays, you would have popped up here to complain that they didn't call the game earlier.
Still not raining.
Still sick from so many 1$ dogs last night. I saw people with platters stacked with hot dogs. Crazy.
It seemed like a lot more people in the park than either Sat or Sun. Wonder how the numbers turned out for the team after all the discounts. I would think just fine.
erocks33 said...
@Anon 12:25 --
Except for a 10, 15 minute shower it's been pretty nice, but what do I know.
Still no rain @15th & L ...
I have no problem when they canceled the game back in early April when it was Nor'easter, but all they had to do this time is look at the freaking radar to tell that all the weather was north and west of town. Later there was suppose to be heavy rain and probably will but they could have gotten this game in easily.
No rain ......
It's all the weather forecaster's fault?
I'm not much of a Lerner-conspiracy person, but I do wonder if they were any quicker about the call if they saw an opportunity to reschedule something on a weekend where it might bring in more money than a Tuesday mid-day game. At least there would have been less incentive to play through the weather today if they thought they could get more money with July 4 tourists in town that weekend.
I am NOT playing the "Lerners are cheap" card. Just speculating about whether this is really a bad call for them to have cancelled after all.
Other 1st basemen the Nats considered are also off to mediocore start: Branyan, Overbay, Cantu and Hawpe. However, Casey Kotchman is not doing too badly (.300+ BA) in limited ABs in Tampa. His defense is even better than LaRoche's.
Like I said, it will be like the Nats became an American League team and just got a FA DH if and when LaRoche starts hitting...
Agree completely with "Ernie". I go by the general rule, if something doesn't seem to make sense then "Follow the Money" and the money here is on a day-night double header on the July 4th weekend.
In and out sun and no rain. King Rizzo has made another bungle.
Do you guys really think the Lerners are the ones to cancel a game? MLB does the cancelling, folks. Come on.
I like the fact that we can naturally limit JZimm's innings here, but look for him to be a bit wild becaus he's overrested and all amped up.
@ Ernie & Murray
Can you blame them? With the $1 tickets yesterday, the attendance was inflated a bit. Tonight's rainy game would have been laughable (on Tuesday against the Pirates). So if they can get 10-15 thousand more butts in the seats on the weekend of the 4th, more power to 'em.
It's more fun to watch a game with a larger crowd anyway, IMO.
@Les
I don't blame them at all. No one could have known with certainty what the weather was going to do today. That's what I was trying to make clear - i'm not really upset. I'm just thinking it makes sense financially and had to be part of the considerations when they decided to cancel.
I'd rather they reschedule later anyway - I'd prefer to be able to go to the game in July than to try to watch online during the work day today.
If the rest of the teams in our division play today and lose, we pick up a half game and Werth didn't have to strike out once!!!
I can understand Zimmermann being skipped. What I do not understand Mark is why is he not pitching Sunday, That would be his next scheduled turn since he didn't pitch today. You Gorzilanny pitching tomorrow and Sunday (why bring him back on 3 days rest>)
Chaos theory started with weather--a butterfly flaps it's wings in Kansas, rain instead of sun in DC. (A 60% chance of rain means there are 10 guys working in the office and six of them think it's going to rain.)
FYI Tim, the home team has the decision on when the game starts, but after the game has started the umpires are in charge.
I thought Jordan Z. would pitch next Sunday in Baltimore. Is that not correct?
Any explanation as to why last Sunday's game wasn't on Channel 50 (as listed on the Nats schedule)?
Funny, Adam Kennedy hit his fourth home run yesterday. He's tied with Adam Dunn and has one more than Adam La Roche. Season's very young, of course.
Sorry guys, I mistyped out the rotation. Zimmermann indeed starts Sunday in Baltimore now, not Gorzelanny.
Am I right in recalling it was the Pirates who screwed the Nats up some weeks ago, making us play a make-up game on Easter up in Pittsburgh that easily could have been played the day befoe -- and they made us wait for a night game too!!! Meanwhile, the Nats had to sit around in Pittsburgh all day Easter cancelling plans with their families -- all so Pitts could make a little loose change that night. I think the attendance was something like 10K that night too. Maybe the cancellation was payback -- telling the Pirates - "We owe you one -- go home -- come back in July and we'll make a little more money -- this time at your expense."
The conspiracy theories here are a joke. some of you and your hatred are a sad example to some of the younger people that read this blog.
MurrayTheRed said...
"FYI Tim, the home team has the decision on when the game starts, but after the game has started the umpires are in charge."
One would think that someone who is listed as a blogger and posts on a baseball board would know such basic stuff.
Then we have the lunatics thinking the Pirates were out to screw the Nats.
I'm not sure if such posts are sad or pathetic.
N. Cognito, if you don't think the home team doesn't try to get an advantage on their opponent when setting timing of a postponement then you don't know as much as you think.
I, for one, am happy and relieved that today's game was cancelled. The Nats can use the day of rest.
Look at the schedule: The have 8 road games coming up with no break. If they had played today, they would have had 16 consecutive playing games without am off day. Send a thank you note to the misinformed weather forecasters.
Besides, the Nats really need to play well tomorrow and Thursday against the Mets. The Mets are only one game behind the Nats in the standings, and psychologically, it will really hurt if the Nets take two and move past the Nats.
The Nats have been propping themselves up with reminders that they are around .500 without Zimmerman. Well and good--that's nothing to sneeze at for this club. And it is WAY better than saying, "We just sank into the cellar, and there is no prospect of getting Zimmerman back for about another month at least." Maybe a day off will help the Nats do well over the next week, and especially over the next two days.
Mark,
To help me understand... who actually "calls" the cancellation? Then, who, in turn, determines the rescheduling of that game.
Can you clear that up for me?
Thanks!
Rescheduling opportunities are not all that abundant. You have to have a day when nither club has a game scheduled, or you double up the next time you play them. There are just not a lot of choices.
BTW 740. Not raining.
Why didn't they play today? It didn't rain. Reminds me of that time when we all sat there at the park waiting for the rain to stop, but they kept making us wait and said that the game would start soon. But it never did. So we went home. My program looked like a wet paper bag by the end. Which reminds me, why can't our batters hit better? Oh, and they ran out of hot chocolate, too. Speaking of running, why can't the Nats run the bases better? Also, the Lerner's are cheap.
It's not rocket science. The home team decides to call the game, they make it up the next opportunity that presents itself. I think I've heard of make ups at the away team's park, in late season desperation situations.
@Tim, not to usurp Mark's pride of place, but perhaps clarify rainout protocols a bit: until the lineup cards are handed to the home plate umpire, the home team owns the decision on whether the field is, or as in this case, will be, playable, but they do need a good reason. In situations like playoff games, the league gets involved, but a Nats-Pirates game in May is unlikely to interest them much.
Once the ump has the lineups, it is exclusively up to him.
I have no doubt teams reschedule games so that it is to their advantage as much as possible - which is usually very little. I don't for a minute believe they reschedule them to screw the other team.
N. Cognito - So, someone somewhere said another team tried to "screw" the visiting team by rescheduling a postponed game?
I don't know who wrote it as I skimmed over the dozens of posts and saw you write the word "screw" in your 6:30 post so I am not getting the context or why it is such a big deal.
Use this thread as an example why teams wait and wait to get games in as people find a freaking way to complain on both sides of the issue. I sat through that Randy Johnson rain delay for hours and it was excruciating so I am in the camp that feels that based on a 90% forecast like today that a cancellation seemed a lock and the team did the right thing.
You are damned if you do and damned if you don't....
Thanks Mark for clearing the Sunday pitcher, I was hoping it was something simple like mis-thinking as you were typing. Lord knows I have done that enough.
You guys already answered the question, but to confirm: The home club decides whether to postpone a game before it begins. Once the lineup cards are exchanged, it's in the umpires' hands. (The exception to this is when it's a team's last game in that city for the season, in which case the umps and MLB are in control.)
As for scheduling make-up games, the home club (in consultation with the visiting club, MLB and the players' union) announces the date and time.
Clicked over to the Phillies/Cards game on MLB Network and saw in the baseline scroll that Manny Acta will be an AL coach at the All-Star Game this year. So a former and a current Nats manager will be taking part. How about that? (Of course, some commenters' heads might explode, but not mine. :-))
Since when does a ball club call a game based on the forecast of scattered showers -- before a drop falls from the sky? Doesnt happen. And we all know that. As some have already mentioned, ball clubs will stop - start -- stop -- and start games dodging rain drops for hours until a game gets in. I have seen a three hour game take 8 hours to complete allowing for bad weather. And today, a game gets called after a brief shower? Nah The only thing that makes sense is the idea that Pittsburgh was owed one for their outrageously bad handling of the Easter weekend -- the management must have been pretty pissed. But today was a great chance to get some payback and then some -- postpone the game (expected to be pretty soggy and miserable) to a potentially nice July 2 or 3 weekend game, allowing many more fannies to fill the seats.
Sounds like win- win to me.
The posters that lash out and namecall using "pathetic" and "sad" and "poor example for young readers" are exactly all of the former -- and truly need to have fun in a baseball blog -- no hostility. How sick is that?
Oliver Perez goes to Harrisburg? Can Syracuse be far now for Bradley Peacock?
Now there's an interesting rotation for us to ponder? Yuniesky Maya, Bradley Meyers, and now Craig Stammen with Tom Milone at the back are starting to come together and put up some impressive stats. Detwiler appears to be floundering as usual as he and Mock seemed to find a way to perennially do. Bradley Peacock looks staged to enter that rotation?
Right now the Chiefs are using fan favorite Josh Wilkie as a closer but he doesn't have a power arm. Have to wonder if Van Allen might get promoted to fill that need?
1118 PM. Still not raining.
Anon 10:52-
Some payback... I sure the Bucs were more than happy to catch an early plane and kIck back. They were in the midst of a 17 consecutive day marathon. Yeah.... We really stuck it to them!!!
Give it a rest, already.... That can't even have made sense to you....
Anonymous said @ 5:51PM...
"Am I right in recalling it was the Pirates who screwed the Nats up some weeks ago, making us play a make-up game on Easter up in Pittsburgh that easily could have been played the day befoe -- and they made us wait for a night game too!!! "
N. Cognito, thanks for the reference but the Anon's recollection was the popular perception of what happened and it was mentioned by Bob and FP during the game too with the story of how the Nats families went to the Easter Egg hunt at the White House.
I don't know if anything was done malicious back there in Pitt but all the conspiracy theories are laughable.
The good news is for the make-up game is I think Ryan Zimmerman will be playing!
Rain in the area must have been scattered, but hard between 10 am and 6 pm yesterday it rained where I was in Manassas 4 times, twice extremely hard. Our schools called off it games as it was pouring at 1, Poured again at 4,
I wasn;'t surprised at all that the game was called early. I kind of prefer that.
Anyone who dimisses the idea of payback by the Nationals for the uber-atrocious baseball etiquette up in Pittsburgh as laughable just isn't thinking "real world" and demonstrate an embarrising level of naivete. I wish we all lived in the world you imagine exists. haha.
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