Umpires:
HP: Cody Oakes. 1B: Rich Grassa.
Weather:
90 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 6
mph, R to L.
T: 2:06
(1:44 delay).
Att:
4,909.
On a hot
Labor Day afternoon with “scattered showers” predicted, both teams started out
as if they were trying to vacate the premises as quickly as possible, with the
first three innings being completed in a mere half hour. Clouds had been
gathering, however, and a few drops of rain started falling in the bottom of
the third. After the Nationals’ leadoff batter was retired in the top of the
fourth, however, the skies opened and the game was quickly halted. The grounds
crew got the tarp on reasonably quickly, the storm moved on after about 20
minutes, and then the sun came out.
And then
we waited. After the tarp was removed, the umpires engaged in a lengthy
conversation with the two managers down the left-field line, while many of the
players from both teams congregated behind second base. The field appeared to
be in great shape, and there didn’t seem to be any remaining storms or
lightning anywhere in the vicinity. This continued until about 3:50 (the game
had been halted shortly after 2:30), when the umpires finally came in and there
was an announcement that the game would be resumed – at 4:15. No indication of
what had caused the lengthy “sun delay”.
The game
itself was pretty anticlimactic. Potomac broke through when catcher Pedro
Severino belted a two-run homer off reliever Jimmy Yacabonis in the fifth
inning, added another run off Yacabonis on three singles in the sixth, and
broke things wide open in the top of the seventh with three runs on four hits
off Lex Rutledge. The Keys didn’t get their first hit until the fifth inning,
finally scoring a run in the seventh on a wild pitch.
Section
203, Row J, Seat 1 – on the aisle in the third row from the back, in the second
section to the right of home plate. This row does provide some shade on a hot
day, but unfortunately only the rearmost two rows are under the overhang and
thus protected from the rain. There’s nothing like the combination of a heavy
rain and a limited amount of space under cover on the concourse to make a
relatively small crowd (many of the announced 4,909 were apparently present in
spirit only) seem much, much larger.
Oh – and if
I had stayed home, I could have watched the Phillies no-hit Atlanta.
