Photo by Andrew Wiseman.

The baseball gods smiled upon South Capitol Street last night.

Nationals phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg was scheduled to make his first start since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2010, but it looked like those fans who bought tickets as soon as the date was announced were going to be disappointed: the National Weather Service said there was a 100 percent chance of rain at 7 p.m., 5 minutes before game time, and manager Davey Johnson said Strasburg wouldn’t pitch if the game was delayed.

Proving the dumbness of a 100 percent prediction, the storm held off and Strasburg was able to pitch, leaving the game with the Nats ahead 3-0 after 5 strong innings. If this were a movie, a single ray of sunlight would have shone onto the pitchers’ mound as Strasburg stepped up; but being real life, he was just greeted by a big cheer.

You could tell immediately that it wasn’t your average Nats game. Between the Metro exit and the stadium entrance there were a number of MPD Special Tactics Branch officers and a Park Police car in the middle of Half Street, whooping its sirens and making announcements about scalping being illegal. The team store was full of baseball caps featuring Strasburg’s #37 — though nobody seemed to be buying them — and a small crowd gathered around the bullpen as he warmed up. And the rain-reduced crowd still managed to be noisy, especially when Strasburg was close to striking somebody out.

The man of the hour looked good out there, finishing with 4 strikeouts and allowing no runs. The Dodgers’ lead-off hitter, Dee Gordon, started the game with a double, but after that, Strasburg induced three fly balls to end the inning. In the second inning, he hit 99 miles per hour on the radar gun and struck out two, followed by another fly out. In the bottom half of the inning, the Nats’ bats came alive, with Wilson Ramos doubling in Chris Marrero. Strasburg then bunted and ended up on second thanks to an errant throw by Dodgers’ pitcher Ted Lilly, which also scored Ramos. The ball boy brought out a jacket for Strasburg while Davey Johnson probably worried about how long he’d be out there in the chilly weather, but luckily an Ian Desmond single and a Jayson Werth groundout brought him home and safely back into the dugout. The inning ended with the home team up 3-0.

Strasburg struck out two more in the third. In the fourth, it started to rain. Since getting to the middle of the fifth would make it an official game, Nats fans were hoping that the good guys could get through the next innings quickly and put the star (and the Nats) in line for the win. Both teams moved efficiently through the next inning and a half, with a big cheer for Strasburg when he finished the top of the 5th, the time that Johnson said he’d take him out.

Also in the fourth, it looked like some other history would be made during the Presidents Race as Teddy jumped out to a big lead. He was moving much faster than the other presidents, and just when he was about the cross the finish line for his first win ever, a gray cat-like creature wearing a red shirt jumped out of the crowd and tackled him. The critter, named That Cat, has been known to do such things before. (Somebody call Animal Control.)

Unfortunately, the good times ended after Strasburg exited: Nats pitchers Doug Slaten and Brad Peacock, making his major league debut, gave up 3 runs in the sixth, thanks in part to some unmade plays by shortstop Ian Desmond and company. At the plate, Danny Espinosa, Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse struck out a combined 10 times, which didn’t help the good guys either. Following a rain delay in the seventh, the Dodgers scored 4 more and the game ended 7-3.

But despite the loss, there were some positives to the game. Strasburg came back, pitched well, generated excitement and didn’t get hurt, and some new Nats made their big league debuts, with Corey Brown and Steven Lombardozzi pinch hitting while new best-National-name candidate Atahualpa Severino took the mound. Here’s looking forward to a few more Strasburg starts this season, with some hopefully ending in wins.