When it rained on Sunday in the top of the sixth inning of the Washington Nationals’ game against the Baltimore Orioles, it really ran on the dirt of the field because the crews of the field had problems had to use the giant tarp that was used to protect the diamond.
The cover was twisted so that the 15 members of the Nationals Park crew needed more than 15 minutes to get the whole thing spread over the dirt – and even then it was upside down, with a sponsor logo to the ground.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE AT FOXNEWS.COM
There were large plazas between the bases, a result of the kind of gridlock with which the nation’s capital is all too familiar.
In general, a process usually took just over 20 minutes to complete in just a few minutes for the tarp to place properly. And then the shower, however, let the sun glide through the clouds.
Once the tarp was removed, the task of trying to clear the dirt in the field began dry enough to allow a Major League Baseball resume. Trucks were driven out so workers could shovel the wet ground into the flatbeds. When the delay lasted for an hour – even though it rained about a third of the time – there were still patches of puddles in the base paths.
The Orioles led 5-2 when the rain came and the delay began. They all scored in the fifth inning against Stephen Strasburg, the World Series MVP who returned from a nervous breakdown in his pitching hand to make his season debut.
