Rain

Sergio Garcia paused over a 9-iron that never reached the green. Vijay Singh felt the wind change in the middle of his swing. Tiger Woods watched a birdie chance disappear off the green and into the water. Blustery wind that swirled from all corners fooled some of the world's best players and turned the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte, N.C., into a test of patience yesterday. Garcia survived by playing bogey-free on the back nine for a 1-under-par 71 and a 7-under 137 total, giving him a two-shot lead over Singh (69)

Will Venable hit a pair of RBI doubles and Cameron Maybin had two run-scoring singles as the San Diego Padres broke out the offense after a long rain delay and beat the New York Mets 11-5 Thursday night. Jesus Guzman hit a two-run double in a four-run third to help the Padres rebound from being swept in a three-game series in St. Louis. Everth Cabrera had a career-high four hits and Eric Stults (1-0) pitched five innings to earn his first win with San Diego. Both starters wearing No. 53 returned to the mound following a delay of 1 hour, 8 minutes after the second inning.

TAYLOR SWIFT With Needtobreathe, Randy Montana, James Wesley At: Gillette Stadium, Saturday FOXBOROUGH — When the rain came, Taylor Swift embraced it. It began as a light patter, adding a delicate backdrop to ballads about young love and how it inevitably leads to heartache. Then came the downpour, and Swift decided if a sold-out Gillette Stadium was going to ride out the storm, so was she. The 21-year-old country-pop star was a trouper, a fact reflected not only in her tolerance for the weather, but also a two-hour performance that proved she is growing into her talent.

By Justin A. Rice, Globe Correspondent Tuesday's full slate of Boston schools' baseball and softball games has been canceled due to inclement weather, wreaking havoc on the race for the city championships. The softball and baseball city championships are slated for this weekend but mother nature is making it difficult to determine who will be playing. In softball, East Boston (9-6, 8-0) and O'Bryant (7-5, 7-3) are poised to represent the North conference in the city championships while Latin Academy (9-10, 7-0)

Patrick Sheehan birdied his first hole of the third round yesterday to move into a four-way tie for the lead in the rain-delayed Houston Open in Humble, Texas. The Providence player was tied with rookie Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker, and Steve Lowery at 5 under par when play was suspended because of darkness. Sheehan completed only No. 1 at the Redstone Golf Club, and his co-leaders had just teed off when tournament officials called a halt because of darkness. The round didn't begin until late afternoon after a rain delay of more than seven hours.

ATLANTA - As Georgia descends deeper into a drought, Governor Sonny Perdue has ordered water restrictions, launched a legal battle, and asked President Bush for help. Today, the governor will call on a higher power. He will join lawmakers and ministers on the steps of the state Capitol to pray for rain. While public prayer vigils might raise eyebrows in other parts of the nation, they are mostly shrugged off in the Bible Belt, where turning to the heavens for help is common and sometimes even politically expedient.

The Nissan Open is headed for uncharted waters. After four days at rainy Los Angeles's Riviera Country Club, no one has played more than 37 holes. And when rain suspended play a mere 30 minutes into the third round yesterday, officials conceded the possibility that the next hole anyone plays will be a sudden-death playoff between Adam Scott and Chad Campbell. That's assuming they can find a hole that's not under water. "We're going to make every effort to play," PGA Tour tournament director Mark Russell said.

LOS ANGELES -- A deadly series of storms across California spawned everything from tornadoes to avalanches, flooding freeways with steady rain and sending rivers of mud crashing through homes. At least six deaths have been attributed to the storm, including a woman buried by an avalanche north of Lake Tahoe and others who were victims of landslides, traffic accidents, falling trees, and flooding. Mudslides forced Amtrak officials to suspend service from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara at least through yesterday.

Freedy Johnston last released an album of new music in 2001 (he put out an engaging covers collection in 2008), but the years since have yielded a gorgeous pop record. It’s filled with a crackling energy, the helium buzz of Johnston’s voice, and his singular character sketches, ruminations, and fly-on-the-wall observations. “Rain on the City’’ moves effortlessly from layered acoustics (“Lonely Penny’’) to light bossa swing (“The Kind of Love We’re In’’), from Buddy Holly big-beat (“The Other Side of Love’’)

The already rain-plagued Wimbledon tournament has started on Day 3 under the Centre Court roof. While rain delayed play on all other courts Wednesday, five-time champion Venus Williams and 40-year-old Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm were playing in the main stadium. The winner of the early match on Centre Court will reach the third round, but there are still 17 first-round matches that have not finished or begun at the All England Club. Later Wednesday, defending champion Rafael Nadal was to play Ryan Sweeting of the United States on Centre Court.

The remnants of the first tropical storm of the season, Alberto, will be rolling through New England today and Tuesday, and rain and clouds will be a common theme early this week, according to the National Weather Service. Scattered showers are expected today, with an increasing chance of heavier showers over Connecticut and Southeastern New England, the service said. Highs will be in the upper 60s. The showers are expected to continue to pop up into the Tuesday morning commute, said meteorologist Bill Simpson.

Heavy rain washed out all play at the Open de Nice clay-court tournament on Monday. Because of the delay, 12 first-round matches are scheduled for Tuesday. On Sunday, only one match was started and it was later stopped in the second set with Belgium's Xavier Malisse leading 7-5, 1-0 against Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun.

Novak Djokovic will have to wait until Monday to defend his Italian Open title against Rafael Nadal after the men's final was postponed for a day because of heavy rain. The match had been scheduled for Sunday afternoon but will now take place midday Monday. Fans jeered the decision after sitting in stands under umbrellas for several hours. Heavy rain has been falling for most of the afternoon in Rome, and the women's final between Maria Sharapova and Li Na was delayed for two hours earlier in the day. Sharapova went on to win 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5)

Maria Sharapova successfully defended her Italian Open title Sunday, beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a wild match in which play was twice interrupted by rain and the red clay turned to mud. "The match was a joke," Li said. "It's tough to play in such heavy rain and then you go and rest for two hours and then play again in heavy rain. … But I still have positive things to take away. She was just stronger and tougher. " The rain proved even more formidable for a men's final that never happened.

Inches of rain fell across the state early this week and in some areas of Western Massachusetts ¾-inch of hail fell Wednesday, but the run of unpleasant weather is over, leaving skies clear for the weekend. Highs today and Friday will be in the low to mid-70s throughout the state. Some clouds will be in the area in the morning, but skies will clear around noon. On Saturday and Sunday, temperatures will range from the upper 70s near the coast to the low 80s in western regions.

Angels starter C.J. Wilson is first major league pitcher in 11 seasons to start consecutive games. Wilson started on Saturday in the second game of the series at Texas. In the series opener Friday night, Wilson threw only 22 pitches to five batters before a 1 hour, 56-minute rain delay in the first inning. The left-hander didn't return after the rain stopped. The last major leaguer to start consecutive games was Aaron Myette for Texas on Sept. 3 and 4, 2002. Myette was ejected from the first game after only two pitches.

LOS ANGELES — A wet prewinter storm dumped as much as 7 inches of rain on parts of Southern California over the weekend, with several more inches expected to fall in the days leading up to Christmas. Rainfall that began Saturday morning continued relentlessly throughout yesterday. It wasn’t expected to let up until sometime today, then resume tomorrow and Wednesday, said Stuart Seto of the National Weather Service. After a brief break at the end of the week, more rain was likely to arrive Christmas Day, Seto said.

US Open champion Retief Goosen was the only winner on a rainy opening day of the World Match Play Championship at Virginia Water, England, yesterday, beating Jeff Maggert over 36 holes by a record 12 and 11. Goosen's margin of victory exceeded the previous record in the 36-hole matches of 11 and 10, when Mark O'Meara beat Vijay Singh in the second round in 1998. Because of a 2 1/2-hour rain delay at the start of the day, seven of the eight matches were suspended by darkness with the players still on the course, including defending champion Ernie Els. The South African recovered...

By Natalie Feulner, Town Correspondent Due to recent rains, construction in the rear part of the Keystone Lot in Dedham Square was postponed this week, a statement from the town said Wednesday. The hope was to have the rear lot already striped and usable for temporary parking during the rest of the project. To prevent further delays, construction needs to start in the front portion of the lot before the rest is striped. As such, the rear of the lot opened to the public starting Wednesday night, but the front portion of the lot will be closed starting at 6 a.m....

By Justin A. Rice, Globe Correspondent Nearly all of Thursday's Boston City League baseball games have been postponed due to inclement weather. All but one city softball games, however, is still slated to be played. Other than Malden Catholic at Madison Park and the Dorchester at Randolph, the remainder of the baseball games on Thursday's schedule have been canceled. The Wellesley at Brighton game has been rescheduled for next Friday, with the varsity playing at 4 p.m. at Rogers Park and the JV...