Heavy rain Sunday night overwhelmed The Diamond's field drainage, allowing water to seep under the infield tarp. The residual effect was a soupy infield that caused the postponement of last night's game between the Richmond Braves and Pawtucket Red Sox.

The game will be played today as part of a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m.

The Braves said the flooding was not a repeat of 2004, when drainage problems in August kept the Braves from playing all but three of 15 scheduled games.

No problems have occurred since the Richmond Metropolitan Authority spent $418,000 to repair the field after the 2004 season. A grade difference of almost 2 feet in the outfield was corrected, more than 100 loads of dirt were trucked in, sand and a drying agent were blended with the existing soil, more than a mile of drainage pipe was installed and 2.3 acres of new sod was put down.

The RMA owns The Diamond and leases it to the R-Braves.

"The field functioned the way it should have," R-Braves assistant general manager Bill Blackwell said. "It was just too much water in too short a time."

The Braves, aware of an impending storm, covered the infield shortly after Sunday night's 8-5 victory by Pawtucket. Field maintenance manager Gerry Huppmann said the storm dumped 2¾ inches of rain on the field in 1½ hours.

Huppmann said the gravity drains in the outfield are not designed to handle that much water. The water piled up, and a strong wind helped push it under the infield tarp and flood the dirt areas at shortstop and second base.

"The wind blew so hard that six or seven nails that hold the tarp down [were torn loose]," Huppmann said.

The outfield is designed to funnel water to two small holes at the bottom of the center-field fence. A water mark was visible about six inches up the fence, well above the holes.

Huppmann said water cascading down the steps in the lower seating area carried a 300-pound, rubber on-deck circle into the fence that surrounds the visiting dugout.

Blackwell said he was talking with R-Braves manager Dave Brundage about 10:30 p.m. when they heard the rain pounding down.

"We wondered how the dugouts were draining," Blackwell said. "We opened the door [to the tunnel that leads from the clubhouse to the dugout], and the water was two steps from coming into the clubhouse."

Huppmann and his crew arrived at 8:30 a.m. yesterday and spent the day working on the field. They spread about 1,000 pounds of drying agent on the infield, he said, but the sun didn't come out long enough to expedite the drying process.

While most of the outfield and infield grass was fairly dry by 3 o'clock, Brundage, Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson and the umpiring crew saw enough soft spots in the infield dirt that they did not want to risk a player getting hurt.

Note -- Richmond called up pitcher Ryan Basner from Double-A Mississippi.