Umpires:
HP: Greg Gibson. 1B: Bill Miller. 2B: Vic Carapazza. 3B: Adam Hamari.
Weather:
58 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 11
mph, In from RF.
T: 3:18.
Att:
27,653.
Light
Easter traffic, smallish Easter crowd, but a great (if lengthy) game. Got the
carnitas tacos from El Verano Taqueria for the first time this season (up to
their usual standard), plus cinnamon pretzel bites for the entire crew, in an
effort to make sure we use up our bonus eCash dollars before they expire at the
end of the season. Realized that the bottled sodas were now up to $5.00 and
decided it wouldn’t hurt to cut down on my consumption of sugar and empty
calories. Still somewhat chilly, as the official temperature at least at gametime didn’t get into
the 60s as predicted, and the shade and wind in our section makes for an even
cooler experience. (Pays off on those hot summer afternoons, though.)
With the
homestand extending around Easter, it seemed appropriate that the three
visiting teams were the Cardinals, the Angels, and the Padres.
As I
picked up the Nats’ free program upon entering the park, I chuckled out loud to
see Bryce Harper featured on the cover with “Nothing But Hustle” as the
headline – ironic given Saturday’s benching for not running out a ground ball.
(Knew that “Nothing But …” marketing campaign would get them into trouble
sooner or later.) More in Tom Boswell’s Washington Post column this morning.
Strasburg
pitched well, giving up single runs in the 2nd and 5th
before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth.
Unfortunately for the Nats, by that point it was “Nothing But Runners Left on
Base” (11 thru the sixth inning, with 0 runs). St. Louis starter Shelby Miller issued
5 walks, and the Nats got several hits, but none when it counted. They finally
broke through after the seventh-inning stretch, when consecutive singles by
LaRoche, Rendon, Desmond, and Espinosa – all but one off 96+ MPH heat from
reliever Carlos Martinez – produced two runs to tie the game.
In the
bottom of the ninth, after a Desmond strikeout, Espinosa got things started by
singling through the legs of third baseman Matt Carpenter, who looked
surprisingly shaky on defense throughout the series. Jose Lobaton then singled Espinosa
to third, and pinch-hitter Nate McLouth drew a walk to load the bases. With
Denard Span up, Cards manager Mike Metheny opted for a five-man infield as his
best chance to keep the winning run from scoring. (This strategy gets pulled
out occasionally in sudden-death situations, but this is the first time I’d
seen it in person.) Span, however, capped a tough 7-pitch at-bat by hitting a
fly to medium left field, plenty deep enough to score Espinosa and send most of
the crowd home happy.
April
games are normally not particularly critical, but given the Nats struggles
against the Dodgers, Cards, and Braves last year, and their 1-5 start against
Atlanta in 2014, dropping 3 of 4 to St. Louis at home would have just
intensified the sentiment that Washington can beat up on baseball’s weaklings
but falls apart against quality opposition. Holding their own against the
defending NL champs has to (hopefully) boost the team’s confidence for the rest
of the season.
Incidentally,
I’m not sure I quite understand why, with Span’s return to the leadoff spot,
Williams insists on placing his 3 lefthanded hitters in the first 4 spots of
the batting order. This basically acts as an open invitation for opposing
managers to squelch late-inning rallies by bringing in a LOOGY and allowing him
to have the platoon advantage against both Span and Harper (and LaRoche, if he
can work around Jayson Werth batting third). Matheny brought in Randy Choate to
defuse a potential Nats rally in the sixth, and used Kevin Siegrist in the
bottom of the eighth to face the top of the Nats order. (Both Harper and
LaRoche reached base against Siegrist, but Pat Neshek retired Rendon to end the
threat.)
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