By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 29, 2006

Just before batting practice yesterday afternoon at RFK Stadium, the tarp went over the infield, and neither the Washington Nationals nor the visiting Philadelphia Phillies went through full warmups.

But even as rain poured down into the night, officials from both teams were adamant that they wanted to make every attempt to get the game in -- even at a late hour -- because the Phillies are in the running for the National League's wild-card berth, and a rainout might mean a makeup here on Monday, a day after the regular season is scheduled to end. "We are playing this game," team president Stan Kasten said. "The words 'takes all night' were used in the conversation."

After a delay of 4 hours 27 minutes, the first pitch was thrown at 11:32 p.m. By then, the Phillies were 1 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the race for the wild card.

Right fielder Austin Kearns remained out of the starting lineup last night, and he still hasn't played in the field since Saturday's violent collision with first baseman Nick Johnson, an incident that left Johnson with a broken right leg.

Kearns's left side has been exceptionally sore, and though he appeared as a pinch hitter in Wednesday night's 14-inning loss, Manager Frank Robinson said, "He should not have been in the game," indicating Kearns inserted himself.

Asked yesterday if he would be able to play at some point over the final weekend of the season, Kearns said, "I hope so, but I don't know." . . .

At about 10:45 p.m. last night, left fielder Alfonso Soriano was scratched and replaced with George Lombard. Club officials said that there was nothing medically wrong with Soriano, but that Robinson wanted to give him a night off. Soriano is hitless in his previous 14 at-bats to drop his average to .279, his lowest mark since July 15. . . .

The Nationals finalized their minor league affiliate roster by signing a two-year deal to stay with Vermont of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. The Nationals now have two-year deals with Columbus (AAA), Hagerstown (A) and Vermont (A) in addition to four-year deals with Harrisburg (AA) and Potomac (A).