As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Friday, May 13, 2016

May 11, 2016 – Nationals 3, Tigers 2 – Nationals Park


 
Attendance: 35,695
Game Time 2:38
Weather: 61 degrees, cloudy
Wind: 4 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Bill Miller, First Base - Pat Hoberg, Second Base - Brian Knight, Third Base - Todd Tichenor
Seventh-inning stretch song: Let’s Dance – David Bowie
 
KK KKK KKK    K KK KK    KK KKK KK
 
With a big weeknight crowd on hand, this one was billed as a classic pitcher’s duel between former Nat Jordan Zimmermann and former Tiger Max Scherzer, who weren’t exactly traded for each other but changed teams via free agency in successive off-seasons. While Zimmermann pitched well, the night clearly belonged to Max, who tied the all-time major league record for strikeouts in a 9-inning game with 20.
 
The game was close throughout. The Nats struck first in the bottom of the first on a Rendon double followed by Harper and Murphy singles. Detroit tied it when Jose Iglesias led off the top of the third with a home run – one of only 3 of the first 12 Detroit batters who did not strike out. Murphy drove in Rendon again in the bottom of the sixth to restore the Nats’ one-run lead, by which point Scherzer had fanned 13.
 
Detroit finally got Max into some hot water in the top of the seventh, getting runners into scoring position for the first time in the game on a one-out Victor Martinez single and Justin Upton double. Scherzer responded by striking out McCann and Gose to maintain the Nats lead. After the stretch, Espinosa homered for the Nats to provide an insurance run.
 
With the crowd roaring, Max retired all 3 Detroit batters in the 8th on called third strikes, bringing his total for the game to 18. Dusty had Papelbon warming up in the bottom of the inning, but avoided a crowd mutiny by sending Scherzer out for the ninth. Things got interesting when J.D. Martinez led off with a homer to cut the lead to one, and (following a strikeout of Miguel Cabrera) Victor Martinez singled to put the tying run on base. Max finished things off by fanning Justin Upton to tie the record, then recording the final out on a ground ball to notch the win.
 
Getting there, however, was definitely not half the fun. We left Westat shortly after 4:30 and encountered our worst traffic ever on the GW Parkway, not getting parked and to the game until shortly before the opening pitch. We thus missed out on the Bryce Harper MVP Bobblehead giveaway, but the historic ballgame (and the relatively warm and surprisingly rain-free evening) more than made up for it.

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