This is like déjà vu all over again not only to re-schedule the 35th game of the season due to the rainy weather, but also because this is already the 4th series against these Phillies. The Nats just faced ex-Nats farmhand Nick Pivetta exactly a week ago last Friday night. The MLB schedulers will have 31.6% of the first 38 games this season as Nats and Phillies games. These teams are so familiar with each other at this point that the managers won’t even need their scouting reports.
Not only does this game become the potential Game #35 to replace yesterday’s rainout; the weather service is not too keen on today’s D.C. weather:
Nationals vs. Phillies weather forecast: Rain gear a good plan, if the game is held https://t.co/eBPklO6kqt
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) May 12, 2017
It also brings up the point of pace of play and length of play because inclement weather plays havoc on the MLB schedule. We have seen snow and hail in Colorado already postpone a game, as well as postponements in the northeast, mid-west, and even in southern California. The Nats had already suffered rain delays before yesterday’s postponement.
When the 29 teams of Major League Baseball owned the Montreal Expos, they went with a plan that forced the hand of the District of Columbia government. The edict was that you pay for the stadium or else. The final budget was well over what the politicians were comfortable with and the stadium could have been much nicer if MLB shared in some of the expense. The way it was set-up, any design change orders would be the financial burden of the new owners of the Washington team.
The stadium turned out to be a nice structure of course, but many visionaries believed it could have gone even further to enhance the vistas and views of the monuments and even a revitalized Anacostia riverfront. On top of that literally and figuratively, they could have designed a retractable roof to make the stadium a year-round venue for the 5+ months when the Nationals would not occupy the field for a variety of events, and eliminate weather delays and rain-outs for the 6+ months the stadium would be used for baseball.
The Lerner’s did not even own the team when the stadium design was set, and the blame really has to go back on Major League Baseball. There was that time the Lerner group went back to D.C. reportedly to ask them to pay for a roof, but there is no way a post-build retrofit would work well and this stadium has already been used for at least 1/3 of its useful life given the 30 year lease model.
So rain, rain, go away, come back another day, and we can continue to lament and complain about the weather which is always going to be a given!
The Nationals announced they are skipping A.J. Cole in the rotation due to last night’s rain-out and the starters will remain as published for the weekend with Tanner Roark getting the start tonight.
We will wait on activations of Koda Glover and Shawn Kelley and the corresponding moves. We know Matt Grace will be sent back to Syracuse, and we expect A.J. Cole to be the other move.
Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park, South Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, Comcast Philadelphia, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® XM 186 Sirius 145 (Internet 869)
Line-ups (subject to change without notice):
- Trea Turner SS
- Jayson Werth LF
- Bryce Harper RF
- Ryan Zimmerman 1B
- Daniel Murphy 2B
- Anthony Rendon 3B
- Matt Wieters C
- Michael Taylor CF
- Tanner Roark
