Is the Phillies-Nationals Game Delayed Today? When Will it Start?

A severe thunderstorm system moving across the Washington, D.C., area has already affected Monday night’s Phillies-Nationals game at Nationals Park, causing the start of the game to be delayed, according to a Washington Nationals announcement.

“The start of today’s game has been delayed due to inclement weather. We are monitoring the situation and will provide an update as more information becomes available,” the Nationals stated via the team’s official social media outlets.

The weather threat comes at a particularly difficult time for Washington, which is set to hand the ball to breakout left-hander Foster Griffin while already navigating multiple pitching injuries. Any postponement could create havoc in the Nationals’ rotation and complicate scheduling for both clubs.

The tarp was on the field at Nationals Park as early as 5 p.m. on Monday. According to the independent Nats Talk outlet, the rain was predicted to clear by about 8 p.m., meaning that if the prediction holds, the delay would last roughly 75 minutes after the scheduled 6:45 p.m. ET start time.

No new start time had been officially announced as of 5:45 p.m., however.

Phillies vs. Nationals Delay for Tonight’s Game

The National Weather Service placed the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region under a Severe Thunderstorm Watch through 9 p.m. ET Monday, with the NWS cataloging risks that include heavy rainfall, wind gusts up to 70 mph inside the most active cells, quarter-size hail, flash flooding, and isolated tornado activity. Lightning is the central concern for any outdoor event in the affected corridor.

Game-time conditions at Nationals Park were projected near 83°F, with an 80% chance of precipitation and southwest winds around 10 mph, according to RotoWire‘s MLB weather report, ahead of the scheduled 6:45 p.m. first pitch in the Phillis-National matchup. Rainfall totals between 0.5 and 0.75 inches are expected, with heavier accumulations possible in the strongest storm cells. Southwest winds of 14 to 16 mph with gusts reaching 24 mph are forecast to persist through the evening.

Thunderstorm activity was already building across the region hours before game time, with forecasters projecting the heaviest and most numerous storms arriving after approximately 2 p.m. — a timeline that put the scheduled 6:45 p.m. start directly in the path of peak activity.

Foster Griffin and the Nationals’ Rotation Depth

Griffin has been one of Washington’s few mound success stories in 2026. The left-hander enters Monday’s start with a 7-2 record, a 3.32 ERA, a 1.11 WHIP, and 80 strikeouts across 84 innings of work, per ESPN stats. A postponement would slide his outing to a makeup date, most likely a doubleheader, forcing the Nationals to burn bullpen depth on short notice and potentially scrambling the order of starts for the rest of the homestand.

That depth is already thin. Washington is currently without starter Jake Irvin, on the 15-day IL, and starters Josiah Gray and reliever Max Kranick, both on the 60-day IL, according to ESPN. Stacking a postponement on top of that situation tightens the rotation math considerably for manager Blake Butera.

Philadelphia enters the series on a two-game run with a 6-2 win over the New York Mets on Sunday following a 15-3 blowout on Saturday. The Phillies are 42-35 and hold second place in the NL East. The Nationals are 40-38 in fourth. Philadelphia owns a 2-1 edge in the season series heading into this four-game set in Washington.

Philadelphia’s starter is listed as undecided, which builds in some flexibility for a postponement scenario. Still, a rainout disrupts rest schedules, travel logistics, and rotation sequencing for the visiting club — costs that cut both ways in a division race that remains genuinely unsettled. Doubleheaders pile stress on bullpens and catchers in ways that linger for days.

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