He’ll Take Rain Check

Greg Maddux fooled Ken Griffey Jr. He fooled Adam Dunn. He fooled every Cincinnati Reds batter for six brilliant innings in his first Dodgers start, yielding no hits and facing one over the minimum.

But he couldn’t fool Mother Nature.

As Maddux walked to the plate to bat in the top of the seventh, a bolt of lightning illuminated the sky over center field. A loud clap of thunder followed.

As the clouds opened, Maddux grounded out and lingered until a teammate brought out his glove. The drizzle became a downpour while he threw warmup pitches, and umpire Dana DeMuth suspended the game.

Maddux was replaced by left-hander Joe Beimel when the game resumed 46 minutes later, and the first batter, Scott Hatteberg, singled. Beimel struck out Griffey and Dunn, and Jonathan Broxton and Takashi Saito took it from there, completing a two-hit, 3-0 victory Thursday night at Great American Ball Park.

Immortality will have to wait for Maddux’s Hall of Fame induction or, perhaps, his next start. The victory was the 328th of his career and 10th this season, giving him a double-figure total 19 years in a row.

The score was 2-0 when the rains came, and although he’s never pitched a no-hitter in the majors, Maddux agreed with Grady Little that his outing was over, telling the manager that he’d had a no-hitter in Little League, and that was good enough for him.

“If we had more than two runs I would have loved to go for it,” Maddux said. “But in a two-run game, especially in this small park, you never know what’s going to happen. We have to win as many games as we can.”

The Dodgers have won six in a row, sweeping series from the Reds and Washington Nationals, and remained three games behind the San Diego Padres in the NL West.

Maddux (10-11) said in his 21 seasons he’d never pitched after a rain delay so late in the game.

“I’ve gone back out after a delay in the second or third inning, but never after six innings,” he said. “I didn’t want to be selfish.”

He also hadn’t pitched wearing a number other than 31. Brad Penny, the ace of the Dodgers staff and All-Star starter, has that number, so Maddux wore 36 and didn’t want to be drawn into a squabble over it.

Penny said he was willing to give Maddux 31, but not until he bartered with another player who wears a number he’s OK with. Perhaps Maddux will stay with 36, at least until he gives up a hit.

“That’s the Maddux I remember in Atlanta,” shortstop Rafael Furcal said. “He made perfect pitches when he needed to and worked fast.”

The game started an hour and five minutes late in anticipation of thundershowers, which ended up passing south of the ballpark. A message on the scoreboard read, “Current radar conditions indicate possible thunderstorm activity in the Cincinnati area. In the interest of maintaining the health of the starting pitchers of both teams, the start of the game will be delayed.”

If not for the initial, unnecessary delay, the game might have been played before the storm hit. The first six innings were played in 1 hour 39 minutes.

Olmedo Saenz gave the Dodgers a lead with a two-out, two-run home run in the first inning, then Maddux went to work.

With the Dodgers infield shifted far to the right side against Griffey in the first, Saenz made a nifty backhand play to start a rare 3-5-1 double play. Maddux walked three and benefited from another double play in the third.

The only hard-hit ball against Maddux came with two out in the fifth when Javier Valentin -- who came in batting .412 against him -- drove a pitch to right-center that J.D. Drew hauled in one step from the wall.

Furcal ranged far to his left for a ground ball by Royce Clayton and threw him out for the first out of the sixth. Otherwise, the plays were as routine as the velocity of Maddux’s pitches -- ranging from 70 to 85 mph.

“He’s got so much control,” rookie catcher Russell Martin said. “You don’t have to do too much, just put the glove in a certain place and he hits it.”

It was a tough act for Beimel to follow. He did his job by striking out the Reds’ two most dangerous hitters, but giving up a hit gnawed at him. Maddux did his best to ease Beimel’s mind.

“He joked around with me,” Beimel said. “I came in the clubhouse and said to him, ‘I’m the idiot who gave up the hit,’ and he just laughed and said don’t worry about it.”

Maddux has seen just about everything in his career. Yet his first game as a Dodger was distinctive -- and memorable.

“For me personally, it was like opening day,” he said. “I knew there was a chance of rain, but as you get into the game, you kind of forget. So when it happened, I was taken by surprise.

“My thought was that I hope it rains for three or four hours and they [call] it.”

Instead, the Dodgers were reminded that for all the control their newest pitcher displays on the mound, not even Greg Maddux can control the weather.

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Begin text of infobox

Weather or not

Greg Maddux barely missed out on his first career no-hitter in his first appearance in a Dodgers uniform. A look at some of his key numbers:

Innings - 6

Hits - 0

Walks - 3

SO - 3

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Los Angeles Times