MOOSIC, Pa. — Rain, it seems, has been the PawSox’ constant companion so far, during their two trips to northeast Pennsylvania.

For the second night in a row, downpours short-circuited Pawtucket’s attempt to get in a game against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.

Last night’s tilt with the Yanks was called off after a pregame wait of approximately 75 minutes.

It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Aug. 9 (5:30 p.m.), during the PawSox’ final trip here this season. The teams will also play a makeup doubleheader on Aug. 8, which was made necessary when rains washed out the second half of Wednesday’s doubleheader, which included a game rescheduled from a previous postponement on May 10.

“It’s brutal,” said utility man Bobby Scales, who experienced plenty of weather-related interruptions last year when he played here. “It seems like those were with Pawtucket, too. You come to the other side, and you get the same result.”

The PawSox were scheduled to motor to Rochester last night for a four-game, weekend series with the Red Wings, beginning with yet another doubleheader, tonight at 6:05.

Lefty Jon Lester (2-4, 3.76) and RHP Mike Burns (0-6, 5.48) will get the starts against the Rochester tandem of LHP Jason Miller (1-2, 2.76) and RHP Brian Bass (2-1, 5.32).

There’s no question that this season has been a tough one on the PawSox, who have languished below the .500 mark since mid-April. And it’s been tougher still on their legions of fans, who continue to turn out in droves at McCoy Stadium to watch them.

Still, one thing that PawSox Nation can look forward to is the imminent arrival of highly touted right-handed starter Clay Buchholz, who has been blowing away Eastern League hitters with frightening efficiency.

Buchholz is the lanky, 6-foot-3, 190-pound Texan, taken 42nd overall by Boston in the 2005 June draft (using the compensation pick the Sox received for losing Pedro Martinez), who has been honing his craft at Double-A Portland.

Honing it, in fact, to the point of domination, if that’s what you want to call a 7-2 mark with a microscopic 1.76 ERA, while racking up 116 strikeouts, the most in minor-league baseball, heading into last night.

Thus, if you read between the lines of comments made this week in Portland by Ben Cherington, Boston’s vice president/player personnel, it’s not a matter of if Buchholz will arrive at McCoy, but when.

“I think two things have to happen,” said Cherington. “First, he’s got to accomplish the things that he set out to accomplish in Double A from a fundamental standpoint. He’s improved a lot on those areas that we challenged him on in spring training.”

If developing four out-pitches, including a mid-90s fastball with wicked movement, and an unhittable 12-to-6 curveball, not to mention the guts to throw any of them in any situation, satisfy those challenges, then you can cross that little item off the list.

“The other part,” Cherington continued, “is that we don’t want players at a level where they’re not being challenged. If a guy is at a level where he doesn’t have to be on his ‘A’ game to go out and have a decent game, that’s not really optimal. We want them where they have to be at the top of their game to succeed. That’s when it’s time to consider a move.”

You can put a check mark in that column, too.

Buchholz will next see the mound in San Francisco when he’ll throw an inning or two in relief for the U.S. team in the All-Star Future’s Game on Sunday.

He’s also been chosen for the Eastern League All-Star Game — along with Sox farmhands Charlie Zink, Jed Lowrie and Jeff Corsaletti — to be staged in Norwich, Conn., on July 11, but he’s been told he won’t pitch.

Instead, you can .count on him being summoned to Pawtucket, probably sooner than later.

“He’s performed to the point,” said Cherington, “where he’s certainly proved that he can compete at the next level.”