If you haven’t been following the drama from the field in Citizens Bank Park, you’ve been missing out. With more rain than expected over the weekend in the Philadelphia area, the decision was made to leave the tarp off on Friday and keep it off until Saturday — when there was an event at the park — which ended up being a bad decision. With the start of play approaching today, the infield was clearly unplayable. Rakes, heaters, blow torches and more were employed in an attempt to get the field ready for the first game of the series tonight. “Basically, we’re drying out the top layer of moisture to sort of turn the field over and roll the field,” Howard Smith, the Phillies’ VP of Business Affairs said, as quoted by Philly.com’s Matt Breen. “It’s actually working.” But as the scheduled start time approached, it was clear it wasn’t working well enough. Shortly after the game was supposed to start, the announcement was made that the game has, in fact, been postponed with a traditional doubleheader scheduled for tomorrow, starting at 3:05 PM EDT in CBP. If you want to catch up on the goings-on from before today’s game was scrapped, here are the Twitter highlights from the City of Brotherly Love: Groundskeepers using blowtorches trying to get the infield dirt dry. pic.twitter.com/7Z0hdG6IYd — Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) September 10, 2018 The weather is good enough to play. The field might not be. #2018 pic.twitter.com/XTldbbwg0e — Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) September 10, 2018 Current state of the infield. Doesn’t look great. pic.twitter.com/ANujqUIYzW — Dan Kolko (@masnKolko) September 10, 2018 #Phillies grounds crew has five blow torches now. Can see the progress they’ve made. A long way to go. pic.twitter.com/aOndEoxbRQ — Todd Zolecki (@ToddZolecki) September 10, 2018 Yes, as you can see above, Bryce Harper lent a hand. And even that wasn’t enough. And he’s Bryce Harper! Is this the park you want to play in next season, Harper? Did Jayson Werth tell you about this when you asked about playing in Philly? Did he? Did he? Sorry. We digress. It will not happen tonight, but don’t worry, the forecast for tomorrow looks... Ah damn it!! 50% chance of rain at 3:00? C’mon already. Were the cheesesteaks kept dry? Were they? Were they??? ? Scherzer said the field was “spongey.” If you put your foot down, it gave out. Obvious to him and to Rhys Hoskins — the players who went out to consult — that it wasn’t playable and would only get worse once people started running on it. — Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) September 10, 2018 Scherzer tested out dirt with Hoskins: “We both stepped on it and said this is unplayable.” Said it was “spongy” and would’ve been a significant injury risk for players running full speed. — Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) September 10, 2018 So yeah, this is all going great. We’re sure it will all be better tomorrow, when Erick Fedde will pitch the first of two with Tanner Roark starting the nightcap. So yeah, to recap all of the news: This is a thing that happened. Doubleheader tomorrow. Cheesesteaks were kept dry. Martinez: "I didn't want to put our players out there, and Kapler agreed." — Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) September 10, 2018<doc-sep>Rain soaked the area all weekend, so the tarp sat on a wet field that never had a chance to dry. By the time the rain cleared Monday afternoon, the grounds crew did not have enough time to dry the field using traditional methods, and the Phillies acknowledged the possibility that the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start might need to be delayed despite the weather being clear. By 7:10 p.m., word spread. The game was postponed, to be played as part of a true doubleheader starting at 3:05 p.m. Tuesday. If the games are played, Erick Fedde will pitch the first game and Tanner Roark the second. The forecast for Tuesday includes a 90 percent chance of rain.<doc-sep>The Philadelphia Phillies grounds crew failed to tarp the field over the weekend when massive storms hit the area. On Monday night, the field was simply too wet to play. (Getty Images) A massive storm front went through Philadelphia — or, more accurately, the entire state of Pennsylvania and the northeast — over the weekend, affecting numerous sporting events across the region. Philadelphia had more than 1.8 inches of rainfall throughout the day on Sunday alone, which is an insane amount of water. It even forced the BMW Championship — the PGA Tour’s penultimate stop in the FedExCup Playoffs that was held just outside of the city — to postpone into a Monday finish. The Philadelphia Phillies, though, apparently weren’t prepared for the rain. The Phillies were on a three-game road trip over the weekend — one in which they got swept by the New York Mets. The grounds crew in Philadelphia, however, didn’t put the tarp over the infield on Friday before the storms started. They didn’t think it was going to rain very much. Now they’re paying the price for it. Monday’s game against the Washington Nationals was postponed because — even though it wasn’t raining at Citizens Bank Park on Monday night — the field was simply too wet from the weekend. The Phillies and Nationals cannot play tonight due to wet grounds because the tarp was not on the field Friday. The game has been postponed. — Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) September 10, 2018 “The field wasn’t tarped Friday night because we were supposed to get a very small amount of rain. If you tarp the field 24 hours a day, it will turn brown and it will die, so it’s an on-off situation,” Howard Smith, a Phillies senior official, told the Washington Post. “We didn’t tarp it Friday night. In retrospect, had I known it was going to be this much rain, we would have tarped it. We didn’t, damage was done, and now we’re just playing catch-up.” Now, the team did make every effort to prepare the field on Monday. Many players and staff members from both organizations took to the field to help get it ready, raking dirt and spreading drying agents. Even Nationals star Bryce Harper picked up a rake at one point to help out. Story continues The Phillies — likely as a last-ditch, out-of-the-box effort — even brought out a pair of flamethrowers to try to dry the field out faster. Phillies groundskeepers are using two flamethrowers to try to get the infield dirt ready in an effort to make the field playable for tonight’s game vs. the Nationals pic.twitter.com/ywwfE6NqDp — Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) September 10, 2018 The Phillies and Nationals will instead play a doubleheader on Tuesday, though they may run into trouble with those games, too. The Weather Channel predicted that thunderstorms would affect the area overnight Monday and all day on Tuesday, showing a 90 percent chance of precipitation. And, to add even more water to the situation, Pennsylvania will likely be hit by the remnants of Hurricane Florence this weekend — which is expected to make landfall along the coast of North and South Carolina later this week. Soooooo the field in Philly is unplayable because they didn't put the tarp down Friday night when there was rain in the forecast all weekend…and now the #Nats and #Phillies are gonna try to play a doubleheader tomorrow AND another game Wed. Uh yeah, sure, good luck with that pic.twitter.com/p431wI6jpi — Jack Fitzsimmons (@WCAX_Jack) September 10, 2018 It’s probably a pretty safe bet that when storms roll through the area again this week — and the hurricane hits this weekend — the Phillies will break out the tarp over the infield. They likely won’t make that mistake twice. More from Yahoo Sports: • Charles Robinson: Why Dallas might have a big offensive problem • Star wasn’t supposed to start, but Browns messed up • NFL winners and losers: Jimmy G. finally takes an ‘L’<doc-sep>PHILADELPHIA — Adam Aaronson, 16, sat in one of the back rows of section 124 here late Tuesday afternoon, watching his hometown Phillies host the Washington Nationals. The teenager from nearby Cherry Hill, New Jersey, had plenty of room to spread out. There were just a few hundred fans in the stands at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia for the first game of a doubleheader between the National League East rivals. They had no trouble hearing the shouts of the third-base coach or when Andrew Stevenson of the Nationals broke his bat while grounding out in the top of the seventh inning. The cry of a baby in the stands could be heard easily from the pressbox. “It is very pleasant,” said his mother, Eden. “Calming,” Adam said. The younger Aaronson quickly bought a pair of tickets Monday evening for the first game of the Tuesday twinbill when he learned wet grounds caused the Phillies to postpone the first game of the series against the Nationals. The grounds crew of the Phillies did not put tarp over the infield this past weekend while the Phillies were in New York to face the Mets. The Philly area got more rain than expected, turning the infield into “pudding,” according to one of the Nationals. Joe and Kathy Coin, a married 60-ish couple from Westhampton, New Jersey, learned Tuesday morning about the postponement. They got on Stubhub.com and bought a pair of tickets for about $67 — the normal price would have been about $120, they said. They have been attending Phillies games for about 20 years. “It kind of worked out for us,” Joe Coin said. “We thought there is going to be a lot of people who can’t come to the first game (Tuesday). We have never been here with this few people. It is a big change.” It may not be the last time this month big league games have few people in the stands, especially if rainouts force more doubleheaders with little advance notice for fans. The Nationals are slated to have a makeup game on Thursday at 4:05 p.m. at Nationals Park against the Chicago Cubs. That game was rained out Sunday, meaning the Nationals played just one day out of four in a stretch from Friday to Monday. Of course, Hurricane Florence, which is already forcing changes in college football this weekend, could have the final say on the Thursday game at Nationals Park. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2021 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.<doc-sep>
The ballad of the 2018 Phillies season has taken yet another strange, and embarrassing, turn. After a weekend of rain and a tarp mishap on Friday night, the infield surface at Citizens Bank Park was deemed unplayable resulting in the cancellation of tonight’s game against the Washington Nationals. The game has been postponed. Doubleheader tomorrow starting at 3:05 p.m. — Jim Salisbury (@JSalisburyNBCS) September 10, 2018 Members of the grounds crew worked for hours this afternoon after finding the infield dirt so soaked that they had to break out five blowtorches in an attempt to dry the field. The Phillies have five flamethrowers drying the infield. pic.twitter.com/Gh8RMhwqmm — Matt Breen (@matt_breen) September 10, 2018 Phillies groundskeepers are using two flamethrowers to try to get the infield dirt ready in an effort to make the field playable for tonight’s game vs. the Nationals pic.twitter.com/ywwfE6NqDp — Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) September 10, 2018 Phillies officials say an unexpected deluge of rain on Friday night, with the infield turf uncovered, was the culprit. The problem was after leaving the tarp off over Friday night and getting way more rain than expected, they then had to keep the tarp on Saturday and Sunday because it kept raining. So they couldn’t work on the field until the rain slowed this afternoon. https://t.co/wNxO6uzOFA — Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) September 10, 2018 Shortly before the scheduled first pitch, both managers and other officials gathered on the infield dirt to discuss the viability of playing the game tonight, but it seemed clear it wasn’t going to happen. Adam Eaton took a few steps around the third base area. His foot sunk in. He called the dirt “squishy”. His footprints are still very visible five minutes later. This is not good. — Dan Kolko (@masnKolko) September 10, 2018 Gabe Kapler just tried to run the basepaths. Here's hoping everyone decides he and Davey need to race to adequately test this out. — Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) September 10, 2018 Hey, the good news is Bryce Harper at least seems invested in helping maintain his future home. The way things have been going for the Phils lately, perhaps this isn’t the worst thing that could have happened. And frankly, I think we all know who’s to blame here. Tonight’s incident is, of course, reminiscent of 2001, when an Eagles preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens at the Vet had to be cancelled because of lumps and ripples in the turf, a truly embarrassing moment for the city. This one ain’t much better. And not for nothin’, getting two games in tomorrow isn’t going to be a walk in the park either. And yes, there’s a 90 percent chance of rain tomorrow. — Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) September 10, 2018 Get those flamethrowers handy.