Tonight's series opener between the Nationals and Braves has been postponed due to dangerous storms sweeping through the area, the club just announced. No makeup date has been set, though manager Davey Johnson said he believes it will be played in August during the Braves' next trip to Washington.
Though the forecast looked unfavorable all afternoon, and though tornado warnings were issued in other parts of the region, the Nationals tried to hold out hope the game could be played. Eventually, they realized it wouldn't be possible.
Stephen Strasburg was scheduled to start for the Nationals against Atlanta left-hander Mike Minor. Michael Morse was due to make his season debut after coming off the disabled list earlier in the day.
Johnson said Strasburg will now start tomorrow's 4:05 p.m. game, with Gio Gonzalez starting Sunday's 1:35 p.m. series finale. The Braves will skip over Minor's rotation spot and instead go with NL ERA leader Brandon Beachy tomorrow as originally scheduled.
One interesting result of tonight's rainout: If everyone stays on schedule, Strasburg is now lined up to face the Red Sox June 8 at Fenway Park. He would not have pitched in that series otherwise.
Despite the lack of baseball, there was still some history made at Nationals Park. A group of 500 trombone players took the warning track shortly after 6 p.m. and became the largest such group ever to perform in one place at one time.
20 comments:
Shocker on the postponement. I did not see that coming. :-) Seriously, stay safe, Mark and Insiders. (I can think of a few comments on the record, but I'll keep them to myself because it's a family blog and all. I guess, congrats?)
Damn. I have tickets for tomorrow. Now, instead of getting to watch Gio pitch I'll have to watch that loser Strasburg.
500 musical mobile lightning rods took the field at the same time... that's what Mark meant to say.
That blows. The horns, that is.
500 musical mobile lightning rods took the field at the same time... that's what Mark meant to say.
Heck I didn't know the Electric Light Orchestra was in town? Might have gone to that concert.
I took a chance by staying home tonight. Now it pays off. Hate to lose my Nats fix, though.
Once upon a time, people weren't afraid to go outside in a little wet weather
ooooo, ooooooo, I get to see Gio on Sunday!!!!
Rainchecks are as good as gold. And at least they didn't keep folks there until 9 pm before bowing to the inevitable. And now Strasburg gets to mow down the BoSox. Not to mention the ushers get a night off before the debut of the new no going to your seat during at bats policy. Good stuff.
Though we face a night of withdrawl, this helps the Nats. Morse, Strasburg, Flores and Wang get more rest. It's one less game without Storen. It shortens the brutal stretch to 32 games. The Nats are still in first place.
The Nats are 6-6 with 20 games to go.
Stanton in the 1st inning vs. Phillies with a RBI double. Were they not watching the Nats series?
Yay!! Gio!!! Was looking forward to JZimm, but now I can see the Master Bender at work...cool...
Seems like with both teams having an off day yesterday, and both having one on Monday, that a Monday make up makes sense. They already have one doubleheader in August, why back up a second one unneccesarily?
Oh I forgot we have our award ceremony Monday night, the nats don't wantme to miss two games in a week as we have graduation Thursday night.
500 musical mobile lightning rods took the field at the same time... that's what Mark meant to say.
Heck I didn't know the Electric Light Orchestra was in town? Might have gone to that concert.
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Gotta give it up. Post of the Day.
I thought the Electric Light Orchestra post was very cleaver also.
As a season ticket holder I am ticked off at some of the length of time that the Nationals take to cancel games.
Not only have I spent $7,000 for the season, it's also the time involved in getting to the game (in my case Leesburg is a hassle), cost of gas and parking cost. In the case of today, I realized how bad the weather was going to be and didn't come. But it was a big decision, do I waste $90 of tickets to not come, in the case of today I made the right choice.
But what I am mad about, the Nationals have an obligation to it's fans to assure that games are canceled in advance, not for the hassle but the hazard of having between 5 to 10,000 extra cars creating an even more hazard driving in dangerous conditions.
Of course I can understand it's not a science to predict weather conditions, but tonight with the dire forecast, Tornado warnings for most of the afternoon it should of been a slam duck for the Nats to cancel the game around 4 or 5pm.
I would really like to know who was responsible for the late decision and ask the Nats if they could be more served to the fans in postponing games hours before instead of at 6:45 when the weather was a safety concern.
I actually worked in the little control booth operating security cameras for a very short period of time... and I can tell you the guy in charge of stadium operations making these decisions is a pompous ass. He definitely doesn't care about added traffic and dangerous driving conditions. Dude flies a helicopter when he wants to go somewhere.
I agree 100% on the way it was handled yesterday.I also must drive a long way against the grain of traffic in rush hour to get there. As of 6:30 the Nats weather line was saying 'Game On." With the threat of tornado warnings and the virtual certainty of heavy rain I consider the way they waited to postpone until to 6:45 to have been both callous, and irresponsible. This wasn't a tough call.
Agree re. the ELO post.
Not a good idea either way, but maybe they held off because of the Great Trombone Record Event?
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