Nationals manager 'extremely' frustrated postponed Phillies game was started ahead of rain

Washington Nationals manager Matt Williams didn't hold back when asked if he was frustrated that his team's Saturday game against the Philadelphia Phillies was called off after 1 1/2 innings due to rain.

“Extremely,” Williams said. “Burned our pitcher. I’m not very happy about it.”

Phillies rookie Adam Morgan saw two scoreless innings of work go to waste, while Nationals starter Gio Gonzalez had this sarcastic quip following his one inning of work, which prevents him from pitching in Sunday's game:

"I mean, this rain kind of caught us all off guard. I mean, we didn’t know it was coming for like three days, so …”

Heavy rain was forecast across the East Coast, and games in Baltimore and Detroit had already been postponed to later dates due to the conditions. Despite this, officials in Philadelphia went ahead with the 3:05 p.m. starting time.

"(We were told) it was going to be playable," said Williams, when asked what explanation the Phillies gave for beginning the game. "The forecast was that it was going to be playable. Clearly it wasn’t.”

Stephen Strasburg is expected to take the mound for the 1:05 p.m. ET opener to the doubleheader, but the Nationals are not in any rush to name their starter for Game 2. Williams indicated that they'll wait to see how Strasburg fares before deciding who will start in the night cap.

“It depends on where we’re at and what we’re doing,” Williams said. “We’ll see how Game 1 goes and adjust from there. But we have to get through the first one first.”