Game suspended in second inning, to be resumed Wednesday

Everything was going swimmingly for the Nationals in New York tonight. Until the skies opened in the second inning and left everyone at Citi Field swimming in a deluge.

The Nats' series opener against the Mets ultimately had to be suspended in the top of the second inning, the visitors leading 3-1, after a long and ultimately fruitless wait for a major storm system to clear out of the region.

It will be resumed from the point of suspension Wednesday at 4:10 p.m., still scheduled to complete nine innings. Then the two teams will play a seven-inning game, taking the place of Wednesday's original 7:10 p.m. contest.

Tonight's delay began at 7:42 p.m., with nobody out in the top of the second and Nationals catcher Riley Adams on first base as Paolo Espino stepped to the plate. That's when plate umpire Alan Porter called for the Citi Field grounds crew to roll the tarp out, and that tarp remained covering the infield for the next two hours before the announcement was made that the game was being suspended.

Even if the rain had subsided, the game wouldn't have been able to resume until at least 10:30 p.m., with eight more innings still needing to be played, and the threat of more rain to come overnight.

Who knows who will benefit more from the suspension and creation of a pseudo-doubleheader on Wednesday, but the Nationals had to like how things stood before the storm hit tonight.

They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first when Victor Robles singled to left, Alcides Escobar beat out a bunt down the third base line and Juan Soto blasted a three-run homer. Soto, making his return to the lineup five days after he tweaked his right knee running the bases, drove Carlos Carrasco's 1-1 changeup on a line to left-center field, clearing the fence for his 19th home run of the season.

Handed that quick lead, Espino did give one run back in the bottom of the first on back-to-back, two-out doubles by Pete Alonso and Dominic Smith, both coming as the rain began to fall with increasing velocity. Espino got out of the jam when Adams retrieved a pitch off the backstop and caught Smith in a rundown between second and third, ending the inning.

The rain wound up spoiling both starters' evening, with Espino limited to 14 pitches and Carrasco held to 33. It remains to be seen when either will be available to return to the mound, and both managers now have to figure out how to handle their pitching plans for the 15 innings of baseball that await Wednesday.

Joe Ross and Marcus Stroman are Wednesday's scheduled starters, and Mets manager Luis Rojas already announced Stroman will still start the nightcap, with reliever Drew Smith taking over for Carrasco in the second inning of the suspended game.

Nationals manager Davey Martinez, however, revealed he'll have Ross take over for Espino and pitch the suspended game as if it was his start. The Nats will then need to cobble together a pitching staff for the seven-inning nightcap, with long reliever Jefry Rodriguez one possibility to start.