Thursday doubleheader planned after another rainout

When a major storm cell barreled through New York on Tuesday night, the Nationals' series opener against the Mets had to be suspended in the second inning, then completed this afternoon.

When another major storm cell was preparing to barrel through New York tonight, they didn't take any chances. The Mets delayed the start of the nightcap of the scheduled doubleheader, then an hour later postponed it altogether.

And so despite spending many hours over the last two days at Citi Field, the Nationals and Mets still have completed only one of three games in this series. They'll now hope to get the final two in Thursday afternoon with a 12:10 p.m. doubleheader that will feature a pair of seven-inning games.

It's far from an ideal scenario for either club, but the weather conditions left little alternative. The storm that is now rolling through town isn't expected to clear out until midnight or so, and nobody wanted to wait around that long to start a seven-inning game, with the early-afternoon finale still on tap after that.

So they'll head home for the night and return Thursday, hoping the skies cooperate and they can complete both games on what is expected to be another sweltering August afternoon up and down the East Coast.

Manager Davey Martinez said Erick Fedde, Thursday's originally scheduled starter, will pitch one of the games. He and pitching coach Jim Hickey still needed to meet to formulate a plan for the other game.

Had they been able to play tonight, the Nats had intended to go with a bullpen game, with right-hander Andres Machado on the mound for at least the first inning. They called up veteran left-hander Sean Nolin, who pitched six scoreless innings Aug. 6 for Triple-A Rochester, earlier in the day, so he could be one option. Long reliever Jefry Rodriguez also is available.

And there's still a chance Paolo Espino, who threw only 14 pitches Tuesday night before the game was suspended, could figure into the equation.