WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Tonight's exhibition game between the Nationals and Astros has been canceled due to heavy rain that is not expected to let up throughout the evening, the teams announced. It will not be made up.

The Nats were hoping to get work for a number of relievers tonight, with Derek Law starting a bullpen game.

The team already is scheduled to play a split-squad, day-night doubleheader on Saturday, with Jake Irvin starting the 1:05 p.m. game against the Cardinals in Jupiter and Josiah Gray starting the 6:05 p.m. game against the Marlins in West Palm Beach. Manager Davey Martinez will hope to get all of his relievers sufficient work between those two games.

The Grapefruit League schedule wraps up Sunday afternoon when the Nationals face the Mets in Port St. Lucie.

PHILADELPHIA – Rainouts and doubleheaders are usually bad news for pitchers. A pregame or warmup routine can be thrown off if the game isn’t called until too close to the first pitch. And 18 innings, with the potential for more, are a lot to cover in a single day.

But for the Nationals, last night’s rainout and today’s doubleheader against the Phillies might actually benefit their pitching staff.

Despite a plethora of injuries, the Nats bullpen has been one of the best in baseball in recent weeks. The Nats currently have seven relievers on the injured list, with the latest casualty being Mason Thompson landing on the 15-day IL with a left knee contusion.

But over their last 16 games, the Nats bullpen has posted a collective 2.39 ERA, the best in the National League and third-best in the majors during that span. Relievers have also posted a 1.139 WHIP and 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings over 52 ⅔ innings since July 21.

“I think we're starting to realize that we need to attack the strike zone and get ahead,” manager Davey Martinez said during his pregame press conference before yesterday’s postponement. “That's been the biggest difference right now for our bullpen guys is that we're really emphasizing getting ahead of hitters, attacking them early and not put yourself in a hole. And these guys have done that, and they've done really well.”

PHILADELPHIA – Like many thought throughout the day, there will be no baseball played at Citizens Bank Park tonight.

The Nationals and Phillies have been postponed due to the approaching storms in the Philadelphia region, which have been going up the entire East Coast this afternoon. The game will be made up tomorrow, Aug. 8, at 4:05 p.m. as part of a single-admission doubleheader. Game 2 will start approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1. Both games will air on MASN2.

If you are planning to attend tomorrow’s game, all gates will open at 3:05 p.m. Tickets from tonight’s game will not be valid for either game on Tuesday.

Trevor Williams, who was scheduled to start tonight, will start Game 1 tomorrow, with Josiah Gray starting Game 2.

The rotation will actually be OK moving forward despite the upcoming doubleheader. The Nats have off-days on each of the next two Mondays. And with Joan Adon’s successful start on Saturday and Williams’ return from the bereavement list, they have six starters readily available for the near future.

Tonight’s series opener between the Nationals and Pirates has been postponed due to heavy rain that has been falling in the D.C. area all day and promises to continue through the entire evening.

The game will be made up Saturday as part of a day-night doubleheader, with the originally scheduled 1:05 p.m. game remaining as planned and a 6:05 p.m. game serving as the makeup for tonight’s postponement.

Separate tickets and parking passes are required for Saturday’s games. Fans who hold tickets for tonight’s rained-out game can use them for Saturday’s 6:05 p.m. game or exchange them at the Nationals Park box office for tickets to a future game (subject to availability). Exchanges must occur prior to June 8.

The Nationals will stick with Patrick Corbin as their starter for Saturday’s first game. Chad Kuhl, tonight’s scheduled starter, will pitch the nightcap, with Josiah Gray still in line to start Sunday’s 1:35 p.m. finale.

If there are no more postponements between now and then, the Nats will probably need to call up someone from their minor league system to start one of the remaining games in this homestand against the Cubs, lest they opt to have either Corbin or Kuhl pitch on short rest.

We have to give them credit for trying, but the Nationals and Phillies will not be able to play tonight’s doubleheader nightcap.

The remnants of Hurricane Ian are moving into our area, so tonight’s game has been rescheduled to 7:05 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 1. All tickets for tonight’s 7:05 p.m. game will now be honored for tomorrow night’s game.

Tomorrow’s originally scheduled 1:05 p.m. game is still scheduled to be played at that time. But the Nats’ press release announcing the latest schedule change did include the phrase “at this time,” implying that game could be in jeopardy as well. 

This now means the two teams will, in fact, try to play a doubleheader on Saturday as was originally scheduled before the second game was moved to this afternoon, a game the Phillies won 5-1. The original doubleheader was scheduled for tomorrow to make up one of the two games lost between these teams when the first week of the regular season was canceled due to the offseason lockout.

For now, the Nats are planning on starting Aníbal Sánchez in Game 1 tomorrow and Tommy Romero in Game 2.

With one massive storm cell having already swept through town and more expected later tonight, the Nationals’ series opener against the Mariners was postponed, with a day-night doubleheader now scheduled for Wednesday.

The call was made around 8:15 p.m., some 70 minutes after the originally scheduled first pitch and about 2 hours after the heaviest of the rain fell during a downpour that included intense wind, lightning and thunder.

The postponement might have been made official earlier if not for the fact this is a two-game series between interleague opponents who rarely face each other. With a 12:05 p.m. finale scheduled Wednesday before the Mariners fly to Texas to open a weekend series Thursday night, the notion of waiting it out tonight was intriguing.

But as more rain began to fall after 8 p.m., with more lightning visible and thunder audible, the Nationals announced the postponement and subsequent doubleheader on Wednesday.

The two teams will begin the day with their originally scheduled 12:05 p.m. game, with Josiah Gray (who was supposed to start tonight) getting the ball for the Nationals. Fans who held a ticket to tonight’s postponed game can now use it for Wednesday’s 6:05 p.m. game, with Erick Fedde making the start.

With rain in the forecast all afternoon and evening, the Nationals wasted little time making a call on tonight’s series opener against the Diamondbacks, announcing it has been postponed seven hours before scheduled first pitch.

The two teams will now play a split doubleheader Tuesday, with a new game starting at 1:05 p.m. ahead of the originally scheduled 7:05 p.m. nightcap. Both games will be nine innings, with Major League Baseball returning to longstanding rules after instituting seven-inning games for doubleheaders in 2020-21.

Fans holding tickets for tonight’s game can use them for the 1:05 p.m. game Tuesday or exchange them for tickets to an available future game. A separate ticket is required for the 7:05 p.m. game.

The rainout doesn’t necessarily come at a bad time for the Nationals, who just completed the first 11 games of a scheduled 18-day marathon with no breaks to open the season. With only two members of their rotation having even reached the sixth inning so far, the pitching staff has been taxed during a 4-7 opening stretch.

The Nats got home late Sunday night following a seven-game trip to Atlanta and Pittsburgh, having won two of three against the defending World Series champion Braves before dropping three of four to the Pirates.