Matt Grace — win or lose, for better or worse — had gotten the “W” or “L” in every start until last night, which he began strong: retiring eight of the first nine batters he faced and picking off the first batter to get a hit off him to end the third.
This was big because Potomac had scored in the inning prior and old-time baseball folks will always tell you that not letting the other team answer in the next half inning is what a pitcher strives for.
For three straight innings, the P-Nats had scored a single run — posting a picket fence, another old-time term I’m trying to keep alive — but by the time J.P. Ramirez had knocked a grounder off the Pelican pitcher’s ankle for his 2nd, it was apparent that there would a race to end the game before the rains came.
For two batters in the top of the fifth, Grace looked like he was going to make it to the finish — a popup to short right that 2B Adrian Sanchez snagged despite the swirling winds, a grounder to third for the second out.
But baseball is a funny game, and wouldn’t you know, the ninth-place batter — .154-hitting Josh Richmond — singled to prolong the inning. The scorecard was already starting to get wet and when I looked up after penciling in _8, the downpour had begun. Odubel Herrera worked the count to 2-0, but wisely took his time and sure enough, the umpires halted play and eventually the game got called.
It’ll be continued tonight at 6:05 p.m. followed by a seven-inning game. Michael Morse, who drawn a first-inning walk, and struck out in the third (though his presence enabled Sanchez to steal second and third without much resistance, leading to the game’s second run) is expected to play again.