News » Tampa’s Tommy Pham extended his hitting

WASHINGTON (AP) — The game between the Chicago Cubs and Washington Nationals was postponed Friday night after two rain delays totaling more than four hours. It was scoreless in the top of the second inning when it was called.The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday starting at 3:05 p.m.A thunderstorm delayed the start of the game 81 minutes Joe Crede Jersey , but the rain had stopped when play began. Heavy rain and lightning returned with two outs and nobody on in the top of the second inning.The rain eventually stopped as midnight approached, but the game was called after a wait of 2 hours, 55 minutes.The rain spoiled the return of Washington Nationals pitcher Joe Ross, who was making his first major league start since undergoing Tommy John surgery in July of 2017. The 25-year-old Ross, whose fastball reached 97 mph, allowed a hit, hit a batter and had a strikeout.Jon Lester tossed a scoreless first inning for Chicago, giving up one hit.Earlier in the day, Cubs manager Joe Maddon was hopeful the teams would get the game in.“We want to play. We don’t want rainouts,” Maddon said. “It’s supposed to rain here for three days. We can plow through. We’ve done that already this year so many times.”“We’d rather plow through this than a doubleheader and a makeup game. We’re going through 23 in a row http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-james-shields-jersey , so we need to play this,” he said.The NL Central-leading Cubs are 12-5 in the first 17 games of 23 games in 23 days without a day off.Washington has lost three straight games and is 2-5 on their 10-game homestand against NL Central teams.TRAINER’S ROOMCubs: RF Ben Zobrist was scratched from the lineup due to neck stiffness.Nationals: LHP Sean Doolittle (stress reaction, left foot) was reinstated from the disabled list. The Nationals closer missed 54 games. . RHP Jeremy Hellickson (right wrist sprain) threw a 50-pitch simulated game and will throw a bullpen session Sunday.UP NEXTCubs LHP Cole Hamels (4-0, 1.00 with Chicago) and RHP Max Scherzer (16-6, 2.28) were scheduled to duel for the second time in a month in Saturday night’s game. Neither got a decision on Aug. 12 when David Bote’s grand slam off Ryan Madson in the bottom of the ninth won it for Chicago 4-3. Hamels is 16-9 with a 2.63 ERA in 36 career starts versus Washington, while Scherzer is 3-1, 2.45 in seven starts against the Cubs. Blake Snell’s teammates did him a huge favor by knocking Corey Kluber out in the second inning of Monday night’s dramatic win by the Tampa Bay Rays over the Cleveland Indians.Now, Snell, emerging as more and more of a Cy Young Award contender, can help himself when he faces the Indians — and Carlos Carrasco — in the finale of a three-game series at the Trop on Wednesday.The Rays had their 12-game home winning streak stopped and moved a step closer to postseason elimination as the Indians won 2-0 on Tuesday night as Cleveland moved a step closer to clinching the American League Central.Article continues below ...“It is a little weird Ron Santo Jersey ,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But, you know what we can start another one here, we can get going. The guys have played really, really well.”The Indians, who added Josh Donaldson to their lineup Tuesday, reduced their magic number for clinching a third straight division title to three with their 15th shutout of the season. Rookie Shane Bieber struck out a career-high 11 and improved to 10-3.Donaldson went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in his Indians debut in a game that saw Edwin Encarnacion reach the 30-homer mark for a seventh straight season.Snell, 18-5 with a 2.06 ERA on the season, is 6-0 with a 1.42 ERA in seven starts since coming off the disabled list.“I really think this team can do it,” Snell said Tuesday. “I think we can prove a lot of people wrong. Just got to keep playing the baseball we’ve been playing.”On Sept. 1, he beat the Indians in Cleveland http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-yolmer-sanchez-jersey , working 6 2/3 innings while allowing eight hits and one unearned run — his first career victory in three career starts against Cleveland. He is 1-1 with a 1.83 ERA in three career starts against the Indians.In his last start, a win over Baltimore, Snell had his streak of 14 consecutive home starts of one run or fewer allowed snapped by a two-run homer by Joey Rickard in the sixth inning. But he is 17-8 with a 2.45 ERA in 32 career starts at Tropicana Field with opponents hitting .212 against him in those outings.Carrasco is coming off a 14-strikeout game in his last start and comes into this one 16-8 with a 3.41 ERA. He lost to the Rays on Sept. 2, yielding five runs on nine hits in 6 1/3 innings and is 4-4 with a 3.21 ERA in 10 games (nine starts) against the Rays in his career.However, while Snell loves pitching at the Trop, so does Carrasco, who comes into this start 4-0 with a 1.11 ERA in five games (four starts) at Tropicana Field.The Tampa loss, combined with yet another Oakland win, dropped the Rays 8 1/2 games behind the A’s for the second wild-card spot. Oakland comes to St. Petersburg this weekend, but the lead appears insurmountable.The Indians announced Kluber will be skipped this weekend Adam Engel Jersey , giving him rest for the upcoming playoffs.“At some point Corey was going to have an extra two days off,” manager Terry Francona said before Tuesday night’s game. “There was no way around it. So Carl (Willis, pitching coach) and he decided that this week he’ll take it.”Kluber, closing in on a possible third Cy Young Award, wasn’t thrilled, Francona said, “So, he’s going to get a week (off) this week, which is too long. Now, the good news is he can throw a good side (session) and all that http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-davidson-jersey , but barring anything crazy, he can go into a playoff game with one extra day’s rest, which is what he wants. And that was the only way to do it.”Trevor Bauer, out with a right fibula stress fracture, is slated to throw off the bullpen mound as he starts his road back.For Tampa Bay, Matt Duffy missed his second straight start with back stiffness, pinch hit but is likely to rest again Wednesday. Kevin Kiermaier (illness) also missed his second straight but was on deck to hit when the game ended.Cash was ejected for the first time this season for arguing a balk in the eighth inning.Tampa’s Tommy Pham extended his hitting streak to a career-high 15 straight games.