Rain puts Harper in foul mood

Bryce Harper was WASHINGTON not pleased with the wet and rainy conditions in which he suffered a left knee injury that could have ended his season.

After a rainout Friday and a three-hour rain delay Saturday, the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants began the first game of their series shortly after 10 p.m. ET Saturday. With the Giants not scheduled to return to Washington this season, Major League Baseball controlled the game times and starts for the three games at Nationals Park.

And so it was under wet conditions that Harper, the National League MVP favorite and the Nationals franchise player, sprinted down the first-base line to try to beat out an infield single in the first inning Saturday. He hit the bag and launched awkwardly into the air, the grotesque ballet causing fans and Harper to fear the worst.

Harper was diagnosed with a severe bone bruise, Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said Sunday, and Harper’s knee remained structurally sound. That makes a return this season likely.

Harper was relieved while addressing reporters Sunday — that unlike teammate Adam Eaton, who tore an anterior cruciate ligament in April, he probably will return this season. But he was not happy about yet another Nationals Park rain delay putting him and others in danger.

“I don’t like wet bases,” Harper said between games of Sunday’s doubleheader with the Giants. “When I went down, I was kind of in shock at the same time of being in the pain of my knee and feeling what I did. I thought about Eaton, of course, him going down and all the injuries that you do see.

“Then I thought to myself, it’s 10 o’clock at night and we’re playing the game in the rain. So I was really upset about that as well. But you know, it’s just a freak accident, a freak situation.

“It flashes before your eyes, and then you realize there’s nothing you can do. It’s part of the game, part of sports. You hope for the best, pray for the best, and I think got the best possible news we could.”

Rizzo said he did not secondguess MLB’s decision to start Saturday’s game.

“No pun intended, it was a perfect storm,” Rizzo said Sunday. “You had a team from the other coast that’s not coming back anymore. MLB controls those games, and the grounds crew did a magnificent job getting the field ready. It’s something that happened; it’s baseball and we have to roll with that.”

Harper acknowledged as much as well, noting there wasn’t much that could be changed to alter a 162game season.

“Too bad we don’t have a roof,” he said.