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Nationals and Dodgers suspended after lights go out in Washington, D.C.

The third delay caused by a bank of lights going out in Nationals Park led to the series opener between the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers being suspended. Play will resume with the Nats ahead 3-2 in the sixth tomorrow at 2:05 PM.

By Patrick Reddington
Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

The first delay of the night, caused by a bank of lights down the third base line in Nationals Park going out, lasted for an hour and twenty-two minutes, knocking Washington Nationals' starter Jordan Zimmermann out after just four innings of work against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers in which he gave up two runs.

It was a 2-1 game in the visiting team's favor at that point, with one down in the bottom of the fourth.

After the delay, LA's starter, Mike Bolsinger came back out to record the final two outs of the home-half of the inning, but he was done after that, completing four innings as well.

"After the second one we knew that we weren't going to do it again. You end up spending pitchers and guys sit around way too long..." -Matt Williams on delay that led to game being suspended

Nine minutes later, however, the lights went out again.

The second delay lasted for forty-one minutes.

When the lights came back on, Dodgers' right-hander Chin-Hui Tsao took the mound and gave up a double by the Nats' new pitcher Tanner Roark and a two-run home run to left field by Nationals' third baseman Yunel Escobar, that put Washington up 3-2.

They completed the fifth inning, but before the sixth could start it happened again and that was it.

"After the second one we knew that we weren't going to do it again," Nats' skipper Matt Williams said after the game was officially suspended.

"You end up spending pitchers and guys sit around way too long," he explained.

"So the fact that it happened three times, we don't know exactly why, so they're troubleshooting it now and hopefully have it done by tomorrow so there's no more issue."

At that point, the second-year manager said he wasn't sure how things would proceed.

"We're still talking about it," he said, "but I figured I'd come talk to you guys first. We'll have more information forthcoming."

Williams did, however, say that the suspended game would have to be finished before the scheduled 4:05 PM EDT game tomorrow could start.

"Yes, it's a suspended game. So it's an official game because it's five innings, but it's still suspended and we'll have to finish that one before the regularly scheduled one tomorrow."

"It's not what players are used to and guys throw way too hard to have somebody not be able to see a baseball. You're taking people's lives in your hands at that point." -Matt Williams on not being able to play with lights out

Asked if he thought they could have played the game with the field dimmed by the outage, Williams said there was no way that was going to happen.

"It's not what players are used to and guys throw way too hard to have somebody not be able to see a baseball," Williams explained.

"You're taking people's lives in your hands at that point. So we wanted the conditions to be appropriate and we're not going to run our guys out there. [Dodgers' manager Don Mattingly] is not going to do it either.

"Baseball probably wouldn't let us do it either. So it's a situation where we would want our guys to be out there in dim light trying to see a baseball that's coming at them really hard."

Mattingly told reporters, including ESPN.com's Mark Saxon that the umpires shared details of what the problem was, but he didn't understand:

"They were having some talks about breakers and things and computer glitches," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It was over my head. Hopefully, tomorrow, it's not a factor."

Max Scherzer tweeted that be believed the culprit was a certain pop star who used the park while the Nationals were away for the All-Star Break:

After Williams met with reporters, the Nationals made the plans for tomorrow official:

"Just unforeseen circumstances," Williams summed it up. "You never know with baseball."

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