Nationals Park had everything but a full baseball game Wednesday night.
For scheduling purposes, there were 3½ innings completed before dark clouds moved above the stadium, rain dumped, then kept dumping until play was suspended and arranged to continue as part of a doubleheader here Thursday. The final 5½ innings will begin at 2:05 p.m., with the Washington Nationals leading the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 and Juan Soto in the batter’s box. The second game will begin at 7:05 p.m. and last seven innings.
Manager Dave Martinez did not reveal his pitching plans when he spoke to reporters after the official announcement. Both teams will be allowed a 27th player for the second contest. The postponement came well after both bullpens had been cleared and as a cleaning crew swept its way through the lower bowl. Still, some fans waited on the concourse to see whether the action would resume. The rain had stopped, and the scoreboard read: “We continue to see isolated scattered lightning behind the departing line of storms. We remain in a delay until storms pass.”
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Soon, that was simplified to “Rain Delay,” sponsored by Skittles. The Reds had headed back to their hotel before those fans were told to go home. The weather delay stretched for 3 hours 4 minutes.
That time belonged to a streaker who, toward the start of the delay, slid across the infield tarp — using it like a giant, square Slip 'N Slide — before crawling into the roller to escape a group of security guards. Two police officers followed. The man hid in the roller, his clothes dropped along his route from the left field seats to a bit of a pickle. But he quickly made his way out, perhaps in need of fresh air, and was handcuffed on the spot.
The crowd cheered louder than it had for any of the Nationals’ three runs. The streaker was their hero.
And it wasn’t the only odd instance of an upside-down evening. In the top of the third inning, the closed captioning board above each bullpen read: “Right Fielder North Korea Castellanos.” It was supposed to say, “Right Fielder Nick Castellanos.” Often, words are hard. Yet “North Korea” is a long way from “Nick,” and there was no good explanation for why the automatic closed captioning system took such a leap.
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Then, on the field, ahead of the biblical storm, the Nationals even got an RBI single from starting pitcher Joe Ross. He poked it to right field, scoring Josh Harrison with two outs in the third. That was after Washington plated a pair of runs off Reds starter Jeff Hoffman in the first. Hoffman lasted 1⅓ innings, walked five, threw 46 pitches and exited with right shoulder soreness. Ross, meanwhile, used the short start to steady his year.
He tossed four scoreless innings, yielded three hits and a walk and struck out four. He needed 55 pitches to do so. The efficiency, however contained, was a big improvement from his previous two outings. On May 15, he allowed eight runs on eight hits in four innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. On May 20, he allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits in 3⅔ innings against the Chicago Cubs.
But Ross made a slight tweak to his delivery, moving his hands up to his chest. From there, he dropped them near his waist — close to his usual starting position — before raising them again and separating the ball from his glove. The early results were encouraging. Ross threw 16 sliders and got six whiffs. Three more went for called strikes. His sinker, the pitch that sets up everything else, was good for nine called strikes, showing a sharp increase in command.
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“I was staying lower around my belt, by my belly button-ish, which felt good, but obviously things weren’t going well,” Ross said of raising his hands. “So I was trying to figure some stuff out, and it kind of felt better. Felt like it put my hand in a better position trying to deliver my pitches: fastball, change-up and slider.”
But Ross was ultimately upstaged by rain and a crafty streaker. Then the tarp came off the field at 11:35 p.m., the night officially closed.
Read more on the Washington Nationals:
Sean Doolittle on his return to Nationals Park: ‘It’s going to be special, for sure’
Trea Turner isn’t surprised by his home run surge. But he does think he’s been a bit lucky.
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