WASHINGTON -- Bryce Harper will have to wait at least one more day to break out of his frustrating slump after Tuesday nights game between the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles was postponed by rain. The game was called following a delay of approximately 2 hours, 30 minutes. The interleague matchup between crosstown rivals will be made up on Aug. 4. The teams will continue the home-and-home series in Baltimore on Wednesday night. Harper came into the game mired in a 4-for-24 skid since his return from the disabled list on June 30. He had left thumb surgery and missed 57 games. Although the 21-year-old was 1 for 13 over his previous four games, manager Matt Williams was confident the outfielder was on the brink of breaking loose. "Looks better. Timings a little better," Williams said Tuesday afternoon. "Its a process man. Take that much time off, its difficult to maintain timing. So I think hes starting to see it a little bit better, hes a little calmer at the plate. Yeah, the results werent there, but standing in the dugout watching it, he just looks calmer. It looks like hes seeing the ball a little bit better." In spite of Harpers struggles, the Nationals started the day a half-game behind Atlanta in the NL East. For that reason, Harper could afford to be patient while waiting for a return to the form that enabled him to win NL Rookie of the Year honours in 2012. "He knows ... its going to take some time. Standing in the box he can also feel it," Williams said. "When hes starting to see the ball better he can feel that, too. So its a question of continuing to work and continuing to go out and play in game situations and see the breaking ball again and again. Hell be good, but it does take time. Ill be happy to write his name in the lineup every day." The rainout forced the Nationals to shuffle their rotation. Doug Fister, who was slated to start Tuesday, was shoved back to Wednesday. Gio Gonzalez will start Thursday, and Tanner Roark, who was slated to start Wednesday, was moved to the bullpen. Williams said Roark should start Sunday, the final day before the All-Star break. The Orioles came into the game having won seven of eight. They activated right-hander Bud Norris from the disabled list to make his first start since June 21. He had been sidelined with a strained groin. Norris will start Wednesday instead, and Wednesdays scheduled starter, Wei-Yin Chen, was pushed back to Thursday. Williams said talk of a day-night doubleheader Wednesday in Washington, then Baltimore, was never discussed. "Didnt the Mets and Yankees do it at one point?" the manager asked. "I would imagine that it was about the same amount of time to get across New York City that would take for us to get to Baltimore, but no, we had a mutual off day on the 4th of August so well determine what time that game is. Since there was a mutual off day we didnt go that far." Satchel Paige Jersey . 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The weekend at Oriole Park has been less kind, with three players suffering varying degrees of injury. The worst ailment of the three, at least optically, is the deep bone bruise suffered by Adam Lind when he fouled a pitch off the top of his right foot in the sixth inning of Saturdays game. ELKHART LAKE, Wis. -- If Sam Hornish Jr. could do it over, he would be more selective in the way he made the jump from open-wheel racing to NASCAR six years ago. Now, Hornish understands the value of having the right ride. So he relishes his shot to win in the Nationwide series this year -- even if those chances arent coming every week. Hornish, the 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner and a three-time series champion in Indy-style racing, is racing a part-time Nationwide schedule for Joe Gibbs Racing in 2014. Hes splitting the No. 54 car with Sprint Cup series star Kyle Busch, so hell only get to race when Busch cant. His next opportunity is Saturdays race at Road America, a scenic 4-mile road course that winds through the tree-lined hills of central Wisconsin. "There were a lot of people that had negative comments about the fact that I was running a part-time schedule," Hornish said. "But you need to look at what the 54 has done over the past couple of years, what the strength of the JGR organization is. I feel like Id rather have seven shots at it with an opportunity to win every time, rather than (a full schedule) and knowing that if I come home 10th, everybody on the team is going to be happy." Hornish took the part-time ride at Gibbs this year after losing his Nationwide ride at Team Penske; despite his second-place finish to Austin Dillon in the Nationwide drivers championship standings in 2013, his sponsorship dried up and the team didnt have a place for him. In three Nationwide races this year -- two in the No. 54 car and one in the No. 20 car -- he has a victory at Iowa, a second-place finish last week at Michigan and a fifth-place finish at Talladega. And he likes his chhances at Road America, where he has finished fifth each of the past two years.dddddddddddd Its one of Hornishs favourite tracks, one he visited as a fan on family vacations and raced on in open-wheel cars early in his career. "I remember sitting down in Turn 5 as a kid watching the Indy car race," Hornish says. "Any time you can go back to a place that you have these happy childhood memories from, from a vacation or whatever it happened to be, thats always a good thing." A win at Road America would add to the already compelling case Hornish is making for another shot at the top-tier Sprint Cup series, where hes still fighting the stigma of the disappointing first impression he made from 2008 to 2010. Getting back to Cup remains his ultimate goal, but he wont necessarily take any opportunity that comes his way. "Im going to be a little more choosy about that at this point in time, because I know that I cant carry the car," Hornish said. "Nobody can. You can put even the best drivers in the Cup series in a car thats not capable of running in the top 15, and they might get a 12th out of it a day here and there. But thats not enough to keep yourself where you want to be or to move up to that next ride." For now, Hornish wants to make the most of the opportunities he has while appreciating the additional time he has at home with his wife and three kids -- a different kind of full-time schedule. "I went to being kind of a glorified limo driver or taxi driver, taking kids here and there," Hornish says. "But its awesome. Theres been so many part of this year that I would have heard about, instead of being able to experience." ' ' '