Sorry for the delay in putting up the link to part 2 of our July predictions. Drew had them up on the 5th, and then I think I was distracted by the wonders of Atlanta (have you been to the Georgia Aquarium? Or the World of Coke? Holy crow, those are cool places!).
In any case – Drew puts part 2 up here.
Game: #014 – Nationals vs. Brewers
Starting Pitchers: Jason Marquis (#21, 1-0, 3.26) vs. Yovani Gallardo (#49, 1-1, 4.62)
Final Score: Nationals: 8, Brewers: 4
Nats New Record: 7-7
Play of the Game: Danny Espinosa hits a 3-run homer in the fifth inning.
Player of the Game: Ian Desmond – broke out of his slump in a big way – gets himself a ground rule double (which turns into a run on Pudge’s homer), and then a dinger in the 8th inning.
Favorite Non-baseball Moment: Early in the game, Screech – who was celebrating his birthday – and a few mascot friends handed out cupcakes in the press box. Because my seats are in the section just below the box, we heard an announcement around the second inning that Screech was giving all the journalists Georgetown Cupcakes. April (my game buddy) and I were SO jealous.
Who was there: Maggie and mutual friend of hers and Ashley’s, April.
What did we eat: April tried out the Big Kid Dog, and Maggie had a falafel. Aprils hot dog was a little warmer than the one that Maggie tried, so said it was better. Maggie’s falafel had too many vegetables (she should have just asked for only lettuce as a wimpy eater). Later, April had a cinnamon curly W pretzel, and Maggie got hungry and got chili nachos from Hard Times Cafe.
President’s Race: The Un-Racing sausages had an early lead, but Screech’s mascot friends stopped them, and then the Rushmores caught up, and Teddy body-slammed one of the sausages into the ground. A truly epic stop by Teddy, which allowed George to take the win.
Other Observations:
- Adam LaRoche tried to do a back and forth 3-6-3 double play in the third inning, and the ball didn’t get back to first base in time for the second out. Really disappointing.
- Mama Screech was in attendance at the game, supporting her son on his 6th birthday with a cake. The Mama Screech costume cracks me up, because it’s such a terrible re-working of the original Screech costume. But really – what else are you going to do with a fat Bald Eagle furry costume that looks like a beanie baby?
- Ian Desmond wasn’t the only one breaking out of a slump – Michael Morse had a pretty decent game too, and his hit, combined with Ian’s were the 2 guys on base when Pudge stepped up to bat. Pudge’s hit just barely cleared the fence into the stands. The funny part was that on twitter earlier in the game, everyone was saying, “Oh, I called Danny’s home run.” NO ONE called Pudge’s. I think more people made comments about him being likely to ground into a double play than possibly hitting one out.
- Nyjer Morgan made a pinch hitting appearance in the 6th inning. Reports said mixed boos and cheers, but from where I sat, he seemed to be roundly booed.
- Jason Marquis pitched for 7 innings and did an admirable job. He even had a decent hit, which contributed to every National in the lineup getting a hit, and by getting a quality start, made sure that every starting pitcher for the Nationals had a quality start thus far.
- The ninth inning took what seemed like forever to finish. The bullpen didn’t seem quite so sure of themselves (perhaps worried about how things would go with a second game starting soon), and it was a long inning. Long enough to allow the wave to go around the ballpark a few times!
- Due to a previous engagement of Maggie’s, we weren’t able to stick around for the second game. It seemed that leaving after the first had finished was not just our plan – what seemed like half of Nats park streamed out around 4:40 when the last out was recorded. Maggie wishes she had been able to stay – a true doubleheader is rare, and would have been fun (if a LOT of baseball).
(full album from this game can be seen here)
Game: #010 – Nationals vs. Brewers
Starting Pitchers: John Lannan (#31, 1-1, 5.74) vs. Yovani Gallardo (#49, 0-2, 5.50)]
Final Score: Nationals: 5, Brewers: 3
Nats New Record: 5-5
Play(s) of the Game: Nyjer Morgan triples in the bottom of the 3rd to score Wil Nieves for DC’s first run of the game.
Player(s) of the Game: Josh Willingham – with a solo homer in the 6th and and amazing diving catch in the eighth, he more than deserves to wear the silver Elvis wig.
Favorite Non-baseball Moment: Our first appearance on the big screen of the season! During the “Fan of the Game”, Fan 3 (the eventual winner) was shown going crazy for the camera standing near the Scoreboard Walk bar. Behind him were two distinct items: a red and blue tye-dye shirt belonging to Ashley, and Maggie’s blue purse with white ducks. We shrieked when we realized we’d made it onto the big screen (or, our backsides had) as we waited for $5 beers.
Who was there: Ashley and Maggie
Our Records (for games we attend): Ashley – 1-2; Maggie – 1-2
Where did we sit (how were the seats): We were in Maggie’s regular seats: Section 311. Maggie loves these seats for good reason – the view is great, there are many food choices just behind the section, bathrooms close, and shelter from the rain (if necessary).
What did we eat (and how was it): First off, Maggie went to the Bullpen and had a $6 Bud Light Lime (which was fine). But Ashley reminded her that on Miller Light party nights, beers are $5 on the Scoreboard walk until first pitch, so they went into the game and got a beer each. During the first inning, both Maggie and Ashley got hungry, so they got up to get food (which meant they missed Adam Dunn being ejected – curses!). Maggie went to Flippin’ Pizza where the staff (who were VERY happy to see her) recommended the pepperoni pizza. The pizza was good – thick crust, but crunchy, with enough thick little slices of pepperoni to be tasty, but not overwhelming. Ashley headed over to Steak of the Union to have a cheese steak. Since there weren’t a lot of customers that night, the excellent chef promised to make the best cheesesteak EVER. He may have been a little too enthusiastic because even though it was actually pretty tasty, the bun fell apart, and Ashley couldn’t find a fork, so it was messy. She thought the meat and peppers/onions were good by themselves and did not need a dose of fake cheese on top (but she may also just be prejudiced against fake cheese). In the middle of the game, Maggie went over to Taste of the Majors and got some cheese-waffle fries. Normally these are served with the same fake orange cheese, but Taste of the Majors has a second cheese sauce – white this time – which proved to be a tasty alternative. The fries themselves were pretty good (if not quite crisp enough)
Promotional Items (and how is it): No official promotional items tonight, though it was DC’s Jackie Robinson Night (even though the official JR Day was yesterday). However, up on the scoreboard walk, Hot 99.5 (A DC radio station) was handing out free beer koozies to people as they walked by. It’s mostly covered in non-Nationals logos, but there is a small curly W on there.
President’s Race: The race itself was run of the mill, but as Abe took the win, he knocked over a bunch of fake-Racing Sausages. We think the Rushmores are putting the challenge out there early to their racing brethren in Milwaukee.
Other Observations:
- We mentioned earlier that we started the night in the Bullpen, which was…ok. It’s not really either of our style (kind of fratty), but the beer prices are better compared to the stadium (though not on Miller Lite party nights before 1st pitch), and you can’t beat the people watching. Also – the featured band last night was quite enjoyable [The Bobby T Project, if the cached version of the Bullpen website can be trusted]. As Maggie waited for Ashley to show up, she made friends with the only other visible loner in the crowd – Laura, who was nearly hit by an errant water balloon (yes – some idiot decided to throw a water balloon into the crowd). She was waiting for work friends, and after Maggie and Ashley left to go into the park, they saw Laura and her friend Adam in the stadium later. Anyways – hello to Laura and Adam if they’re reading!
- DC Washington, who sang the national anthem last night, was AMAZING. We’re both big fans and wonder if his awesome name is coincidental, or if it’s a purposeful stage name?
- We were sad to see the stadium so empty on a Friday night just one week into the season. Even though there was some rain, it was mostly annoying, and since it didn’t stop the game at any point – shouldn’t have stopped folks from coming out. Perhaps the small crowd (just over 17K) contributed to the anemic cheering for most of the game (getting your crowd to yell “Charge!” is hard if the organ doesn’t play the entire ‘dun-dun-dun-dun-duh-dah!’). Of course, by the top of the 9th, the crowd was on its feet.
- A special shout-out to the awesome staffers at Nationals Stadium. From the cheerful Flippin’ Pizza staff, to the chef at Steak of the Union, Paul at section 114 who let us go down in his section to watch the last inning, or the Nutty Bavarian vendor who handed Ashley a free churro after the game, everyone we encountered was delightful on such a damp evening.
- We love Fireworks Fridays, and that’s a fact. :)
- As I write this post, it seems the Nationals have gone and won themselves another game, putting them at 6-5, which is the first time they’ve had a winning record in more than two years. Great job, guys!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np2ERGxSlh8]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQM0Cua4v-0]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXtEMACgXaY]
(full album from this game can be seen here)
(more videos from this game and others can be seen here)