It was a long, wet and cold Friday night that stretched into early Saturday morning.
When the umpires finally decided to suspend the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, there had been four rain delays totaling 3 hours, 36 minutes.
The game was tied 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning and only a few hundred fans were still at Petco Park when the umps called it.
The final delay began at 1:13 a.m. Matt Kemp had just hit a leadoff single when it started pouring. The game was suspended at 1:40 a.m.
Clayton Richard, who started the game for the Padres but didn't return after the second rain delay, had never seen anything like it.
"We were talking about that," Richard said. "It's so late now, I'm trying to stay awake, to be honest."
During the long breaks, the players sat around and talked, hit the weight room or snacked.
Local
"We played baseball every now and then, so that kept us awake a little bit," Richard said.
The game will be resumed at 5:35 p.m. Saturday, before that night's regularly scheduled game.
"I've seen a lot of them like this," said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who played his whole career with the New York Yankees. "East Coast, we played a lot of these on and off, and on and off."
The start of the game was delayed 28 minutes due to the threat of rain. It didn't start raining, though, until the top of the second inning, just after Kemp doubled to right field. That led to a delay of one hour, 34 minutes.
When play resumed, Cory Luebke replaced fellow lefty Richard for the Padres. A wild pitch moved Kemp to third, but Luebke struck out the side.
Dodgers lefty Ted Lilly stayed in the game.
The Dodgers' two runs were unearned due to Padres catcher Nick Hundley's throwing error in the fourth inning and passed ball in the sixth.
Casey Blake walked leading off the fourth and advanced on Kemp's one-out walk. They pulled off a double steal, and Hundley's throw to second sailed over Orlando Hudson's head and into center field, allowing Blake to score for a 1-0 lead.
The Padres went ahead 2-1 in the fifth, chasing Lilly in the process. Lilly allowed three hits in the inning, including Hudson's tying RBI single and Jorge Cantu's double. He made way for Mike MacDougal with runners on second and third, and Ryan Ludwick's grounder brought in Hudson for a 2-1 lead.
The Dodgers then rallied for their first hits since the first rain delay. With San Diego's Chad Qualls pitching, Blake hit a one-out single and advanced on Hundley's passed ball and Andre Ethier's infield single. Blake scored when Kemp lined a single over shortstop Jason Bartlett's head.
It began raining hard before the bottom of the sixth got under way, and the tarp came out again. That delay was 1:07.
NOTES: Padres manager Bud Black said ace Mat Latos will start Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Reds. Latos has been on the 15-day disabled list with a sore right shoulder. ... The Padres had two rain delays last season: an 18-minute delay against San Francisco on April 21 and a 22-minute delay against Chicago on Sept. 30.
