Aug 31, 2021 3 min read

Even the best-designed plans of a baseball manager are no match for Mother Nature, especially in Western Pennsylvania at this time of year.

Washington’s series opener Tuesday night against the New York Boulders at Wild Things Park was rained out. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader today beginning at 5:05 p.m.

The rainout will cause Washington to juggle its pitching rotation ahead of a pivotal four-game weekend series at Sussex County. The Wild Things entered Tuesday one game behind first-place Sussex County in the Northeast Division with 13 to play. Sussex County played Tuesday at Quebec. That game was not completed by press time.

Washington was to pitch left-hander Ryan Hennen (9-2, 2.22), who leads the league in ERA, on Tuesday. Hennen did some running on the warning track but had not started throwing before the rain began gaining in intensity and caused the start time to be backed up, first to 7:15 p.m., then to 7:30 and eventually causing the postponement.

“We wanted to play,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said firmly. “We took batting practice and it rained at the end of that, and we were going to play through that kind of rain. We were going to play until it got to Forrest Gump kind of rain. Unfortunately, it got too hard.”

And that means Vaeth has to tweak his rotation. Hennen said that he will pitch one game today – likely with a pitch count because he’s penciled in as the Wild Things’ starter Sunday at Sussex County. That start would be made on three days rest.

“We haven’t figured out how many pitches I will throw, but the game situation will dictate a little of that,” Hennen said.

The starter in the second game could be former major leaguer Rob Whalen. Washington signed Whalen at the Frontier League’s transactions deadline last week, and surely that was done with the intention of having him pitch one of the games at Sussex County. Whalen made his Washington debut last Friday, throwing four innings and 64 innings of relief in a win over Quebec.

“We have to play around and figure it out,” Vaeth said of his pitching plans. “Whoever pitches (Wednesday) will be available for Monday. We still have to figure out who throws in Game 2 of the doubleheader.

“You can’t fight the weather. It is what it is. We have to be flexible. We’ll have a couple different plans. I’ll go back and forth in my mind with them.”

And with rain expected again today, the Wild Things might be going back to the drawing board for Thursday.