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We got six minutes and four batters of baseball in at Nationals Park before the skies opened up. At 7:11, the Nationals and Phillies went into a rain delay under pouring rain, thunder and lightning. Roy Oswalt, who is coming off a back injury, had already warmed up for the bottom of the first, but now he's going to sit until the rain passes.
(I would have posted something sooner, but like the rest of the scribes, I had to run for cover and protect my computer from getting soaked.)
There was lightning in the skies as the Nationals took the field to start the game, and it's probably going to be asked later why the game got started at all. The rain is supposed to pass fairly quickly, and we should be able to get this one in, but a delay so early in the game could leave the Phillies a little rankled.
Anyway, we'll wait out the rain for the second night in a row. Check back for updates.
Update at 8:52 p.m.: The tarp is off the field, and they're estimating a 9:20 restart.
And in a goofy scene, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel walked out to the edge of the infield to watch the water in shallow right field. He started talking with the head groundskeeper - maybe to inspect the field, or maybe to just learn something new about sod. You never know with Uncle Charlie. Hilarious.
