Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Nats stick with Roark in suspended game

Righty pitched one inning on Friday and another on Saturday

WASHINGTON -- A day after the game between the Nationals and Dodgers was suspended because of a faulty circuit breaker, Nationals manager Matt Williams decided to send right-hander Tanner Roark back to the mound on Saturday.

Roark threw just seven pitches in the fifth inning on Friday, and Williams felt he was strong enough pitch in Saturday's suspended game. The righty ended up pitching another inning in a 5-3 victory.

"We sent Tanner back out there. He gave up the homer [to Adrian Gonzalez], but we followed that with [Aaron] Barrett, who threw a nice inning. We are tied in that situation. We are going to our eighth-inning and ninth-inning guys [in Casey Janssen and Drew Storen]."

The Nationals ended up using five pitchers in the game, with Janssen picking up the victory by pitching one shutout inning and striking out two batters.

The game was suspended Friday night before the top of the sixth inning with the Nats leading, 3-2, when some of the stadium lights near the third-base line shut off for the third time.

Video: LAD@WSH: Light outage causes game to be suspended

"We were not going to play in those conditions," Williams said. "[After the lights went out the second time], we collectively made a decision that if it did happen again, that would be the end of it.

"We just couldn't continue to run through pitchers and have them stand out there and play an inning or two and have the lights go out again. Those are unforeseen things you just can't dictate how it's going to go. I know as soon as it happened, [the electricians] were on the roof and working diligently to try to fix the problem. They worked all night, too."

Nationals outfielder Clint Robinson was glad the game ended early. He was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. Robinson said he never witnessed a game being delayed because the lights went out.

"It's unfortunate we couldn't get the game in," Robinson said. "The first time, when the lights went out, it was OK. They blew a fuse or something. The second time, it started to get annoying. The third time, I put my hands on my knees and I said, 'That's enough. Just call it a night. Let's pick it up tomorrow.' I struck out 10 minutes before. I just said, 'That's enough.'"

Bill Ladson is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, All Nats All the Time. He also can be found on Twitter @WashingNats.
Read More: Washington Nationals, Tanner Roark