Umpires:
HP: Toby Basner. 1B: D.J. Reyburn. 2B: Jeff Kellogg. 3B: Dan Bellino.
Weather:
67 degrees, sunny.
Wind: 6
mph, Out to LF.
T: 2:53.
Att:
20,869.
Odd 4:05
starting time, small crowd, great weather. The afternoon did not start
auspiciously when I was unable to find parking in the “west” parking lot at the
Shady Grove Metro station. (Buzzed the parking attendant so I could at least
exit without having to pay.) After some agonizing, I finally decided to park in
the large Rockville Town Square garage (“Garage A”) off 355 and walk to the
Rockville Metro station. This turned out pretty well – I still got to the park
around 3:30, and did remember to get off at Rockville on my way home. Was
originally planning to grab a couple of the wonderful tacos from the Taqueria
sometime mid-game, but wound up just getting a slice of pizza in order to miss
as little of the game as possible. (After having a Curly W pretzel earlier, I
decided that if the Nats had a special container that fans could use all season
to recycle excess pretzel salt, the District might have enough to keep their
roads passable all next winter.)
The game
did not start out all that well, either. Christian Yelich led off for the
Marlins by lining a single to center off Strasburg, and promptly stole second.
Sandy Leon’s throw went into center field, and after McLouth overran it Yelich
took an extra base – runner on third, no outs. Fortunately, the #2 batter hit a
comebacker right to Strasburg. Not clear whether Yelich thought it was going
through or believed that the Nats would just concede the run, but he broke for
the plate and had no chance in the ensuing rundown, which basically ended the
threat.
The Nats
didn’t break through until the third inning. Marlins starter Tom Koehler
temporarily lost the plate with two out, walking Rendon and falling behind 3-0
to Jayson Werth. Werth got the 3-0 green light and didn’t miss the cripple,
giving Washington a 2-0 lead.
Both
Strasburg and Koehler put up goose eggs for the middle three innings. The Nats
threatened in the fourth – Harper led off with a single, and went all the way
from first to third on a hit-and-run ground out to second by Desmond, but Leon
and Strasburg took called third strikes to end the inning.
Meanwhile,
Strasburg was masterful, fanning a total of 12 Marlins. He finally ran into
some trouble in the seventh – Marcell Osuna hit a solo homer with one out, and
a two-out walk to normally inoffensive Marlins catcher Jeff Mathis ended his
afternoon.
The Nats
bullpen, which has struggled at times during the year, came up big today in the
tense 2-1 game. Jerry Blevins retired pinch-hitter Reed Johnson to end the
seventh, then fanned Yelich and Derek Dietrich to start the eighth. Rookie Aaron
Barrett was then called on to face the righthanded-hitting and always dangerous
Giancarlo Stanton. With the Marlins one big swing away from tying the game,
Barrett struck out Stanton to end the inning.
The
tension was mounting as Soriano started to warm in the bullpen, which did not
seem to fill several fans in Section 416 with a high degree of confidence.
Fortunately, Miami turned to the recently-recalled (and wonderfully named)
Arquimedes Caminaro to pitch the bottom of the eighth. With Rendon (leadoff double)
on third and Werth (single and stolen base) on second with one out, Caminaro
proceeded to walk pinch-hitter Kevin Frandsen and Bryce Harper on 4 pitches
each, forcing in a run. After a mound visit by the Marlins’ pitching coach,
Caminaro did blow a fastball by Desmond, followed by a second one that he took
for a ball. The third pitch proved to be the charm, as Desmond knocked it out
to center for the Nats’ second slam in as many games.
Soriano’s
2 Ks in the ninth brought the whiff total to 17 for the game, which tied a Nats record for a nine-inning contest.
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