Umpires:
HP: Eric Cooper. 1B: Tom Hallion. 2B: Hal Gibson III. 3B: Chris Guccione.
Weather:
82 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7
mph, In from CF.
T: 2:47.
Att:
30,038.
If you
came to this game expecting a pitcher’s duel between Cole Hamels and Stephen
Strasburg, you didn’t go home disappointed.
Each
starting pitcher retired the first 7 batters he faced. The third inning was
really the key to the game. With one out, each team’s #8 hitter reached first
base and was sacrificed to second by the pitcher. In the top of the inning,
Phillies leadoff man Ben Revere was unable to plate the run, while in the
bottom of the frame Denard Span singled to center to score Jose Lobaton for an
unearned run and a 1-0 Nats lead.
Hamels and
Strasburg continued their dominance through the next 4 innings, with neither
team mounting a major threat to score. With Strasburg having thrown 99 pitches,
the Nats replaced him with Tyler Clippard in the top of the eighth, and the
Phillies, still down by a run with time running short, were forced to pinch-hit
for Hamels. Unfortunately for them, the Nats were able to plate three runs in
an ugly bottom of the 8th for the visitors, which gave Soriano
plenty of breathing room as he completed the shutout in the 9th. The
Phils were shut out for the second straight game, managing only three hits and
one walk while whiffing 13 times.
Traffic
was uneventful, and the afternoon was much sunnier than I had expected, with
the thunderstorms holding off until the evening. The Taqueria continues to
produce excellent pork tacos (although very slowly), and my eCash card again
proved useful to avoid the long regular line for ice cream.
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