Blacked Out: Dodgers Game Suspended in D.C.

How many Nationals does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

After two lengthy delays due to malfunctioning lights at Nationals Park in Washington D.C., the series opener between the Dodgers and the Nationals was suspended in the top of the sixth inning with the Nationals ahead of the Dodgers 3-2.

The first delay, after an entire bank of lights went out, lasted an hour and 22 minutes. Play finally resumed only to have the lights go out a second time after just nine minutes of baseball actually was played. Then there was a second 40-min delay followed by 12 minutes of play before the lights went out for a THIRD time. Of course by the third light failure, the Nationals had taken the lead with a two-run fifth inning off of reliever Chin-hui Tsao who took over for starter Mike Bolsinger.

Tanner Roark doubled, and Yunel Escobar followed with a two-run homerun to left center which gave the Nats the advantage before the game was suspended.

Washington took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third after Escobar doubled, Danny Espinosa singled and Bryce Harper‘s force out brought in the first run of the game. The Dodgers took a 2-1 lead in the fourth thanks to a two-run homerun from Adrian Gonzalez, his 19th of the season.

According to the official MLB rule book (Rule 4.12):

"a) A game shall become a suspended game that must be completed at a future date if the game is terminated for any of the following reasons:(3) Light failure or malfunction of a mechanical field device under control of the home club. (Mechanical field device shall include automatic tarpaulin or water removal equipment)"

This wasn’t the first time this season the Dodgers dealt with a light delay. Back on June 22nd, there was a briefer 10-minute delay due to malfunctioning lights at Wrigley Field. Manager Joe Maddon played the game under protest, but the Cubs defeated the Dodgers 4-2 anyways.

I suggested that they should play cosmic baseball during the black out, but I’m not sure that’s even a thing.

The game will resume at 11:05 am PT on Saturday followed by their regulary scheduled 1:05 pm PT game.