Dodger Stadium rainouts are very rare

LOS ANGELES -- There is rain expected in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, but call me crazy for thinking the Dodgers' game against the Padres will still be played. The last rainout at Dodger Stadium was 15 years ago.

The National Weather Service says a cold front will bring three to four hours of steady rain to the region, and it isn't expected to stop until late evening. The Weather Channel says the chances for rain at Dodger Stadium is 60 percent at 5 p.m. PT, increasing to 90 percent at 6 p.m., following to 65 percent at 7 p.m. before dropping to 10 percent at 8 p.m.

The second game of the Dodgers-Padres series is scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m.

The last rainout at Dodger Stadium was April 17, 2000 against the Astros. The club has played 1,213 regular season home games since without a rainout, a major league record.

There have been close calls, like the weird Chad Billingsley / Tim Lincecum tilt in 2008 that was delayed by rain, so much so that neither of them started but both pitched in relief. In 2012 there was apprehension before a game against the Padres, but the game started on time and Aaron Harang set a Dodgers record with nine consecutive strikeouts.

But rainouts are exceedingly rare in Los Angeles. There have only been 17 in the 53-year history of Dodger Stadium. In addition to the current record streak without a rainout, there have been other long drought, too.

The Dodgers played 410 games at Dodger Stadium before its first rainout, on April 21, 1967, then went 724 games before the next one, in 1976. The club also went from 1988 to 1999 between rainouts, a streak of 856 games that was the major league record before the current streak.

Nine of the 17 Dodger Stadium rainouts have occurred in April, including the last five. In 1988, the Dodgers had three straight rainouts from April 19-21, wiping out the final three games of  four-game series against the Padres. Going three straight days without baseball might make a man stir crazy, as was the case 27 years ago, per Sam McManis in the Los Angeles Times:

Dodger players were getting cabin fever during Thursday's rain delay. Danny Heep rummaged around the trainer's room for props and finally went onto the field wearing flippers, a snorkel and carrying a kick board

Six of the 17 Dodger Stadium rainouts have been against San Diego. Maybe they are due. We'll find out later tongiht.