April 24, 2014 – Padres 4, Nationals 3 (12 innings) – Nationals Park

A baserunner is a terrible thing to waste

Umpires: HP: Cory Blaser. 1B: Jim Joyce. 2B: Doug Eddings. 3B: Marvin Hudson.

Weather: 62 degrees, partly cloudy.

Wind: 8 mph, In from LF.

T: 4:14.

Att: 22,904.

Last Sunday, the Nats set a team record for a nine-inning game by stranding 17 runners, but nevertheless managed a 3-2 win over St. Louis. They only left 14 on base tonight (13 through the first 9), but made franchise history in a slighty different way by going 0-16 with runners in scoring position. This time they weren’t so lucky, as San Diego finally pushed across a run against the Washington bullpen in the 12^th inning to score a 4-3 win. The 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th innings were particularly frustrating, as each time the Nats started out with a runner on second with no outs, only to see the next batter strike out rather than advancing the baserunner to third.

The Nats opened the scoring with a gift run in the bottom of the third. With one out, Padres starting pitcher Eric Stults attempted to pick Denard Span off first base but threw the ball away, allowing Span to get to third. Rendon followed by hitting a sac fly to left to score Span. After falling behind 3-1, they did come back to tie things up on solo homers by Espinosa in the sixth and LaRoche in the seventh.

Jordan Zimmermann turned in a decent outing for the Nats, allowing 3 runs in his 6 innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. He dominated the Padres for the first three innings, facing only the minimum 9 batters and keeping his pitch count low. (In a sign of possible trouble to come, though, he fell behind 2-0 to both the #8 and #9 hitters before getting them out.) He did allow a run in the fourth and two in the sixth, as the Padres did a much better job taking advantage of their opportunities. The bullpen then held the fort until San Diego finally scored on Stammen in his third inning of work. Clippard’s eighth inning performance, although scoreless, was not especially encouraging, as he wrapped three long fly ball outs to center field around a single and a walk.

We did get to see the Nats' first successful replay challenge -- San Diego's Yonder Alonso was initially ruled to have successfully stolen second base in the ninth, but was ruled out after review. We also saw an oddity in the bottom of the 11th inning, when Padres ace starting pitcher Andrew Cashner came out to play left field. Turns out that left fielder Seth Smith had to leave the game due to a strained groin, and manager Bud Black had planned to double-switch the pitcher and left fielder after the first batter of the inning. Thus, Cashner remained in the game for one uneventful batter, then left after the double switch.

This was the first night game of the season for me, so I had forgotten how crowded Metro can be at rush hour. Most of the Red Line leg was not too bad, but by Farragut North my car was completely packed. Did arrive early enough to get down to Subway (the usual roast beef on honey oat with lettuce, tomato, pickles and banana peppers), and took advantage of one of my $5 beer coupons at the Nats Dogs stand. It wasn't as cold/windy as it could have been, although I did wear a warmer jacket, as well as gloves for part of the game. I wound up leaving after the 11^th inning to be sure I wouldn’t miss the final Red Line train (so I did miss Harper getting doubled off second to end the game), and finally got back to Shady Grove a few minutes after midnight. (At least I didn’t have to pay to get out of the parking lot.)

#67 Mystery -- The Manhattan Transfer (1984)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNq2MLg0N4E

You may or may not have heard of British songwriter/producer/musician Rod Temperton, but you almost certainly are familiar with some of the hits he’s written:

·        Boogie Nights, Always And Forever, and The Groove Line (all hits for the R&B group Heatwave, of which Temperton was a member for a couple years)

·        Rock With You, Off The Wall, and Thriller (Michael Jackson)

·        Baby Come To Me (Patti Austin and James Ingram)

·        Sweet Freedom (Michael McDonald)

Yet, for some reason, no one could even crack the top 100 with “Mystery”, perhaps the best song he’s ever written. The Manhattan Transfer, who just managed to hit the Top 40 in 1983 with “Spice of Life” (which was co-written by Temperton), released “Mystery” as the follow-up single, but it never gained any traction. It also appears on Anita Baker’s breakthrough 1986 album Rapture, but was wasted as the B-side of “Caught Up in the Rapture”. (To be fair, Baker had 5 successful other tracks from the LP and didn’t exactly need any more.)

Quite a mystery why this one never made it, but the lack of chart success certainly shouldn’t diminish the quality of the song. Perhaps it hit #1 in some alternate musical universe.

#68 Follow You Down -- Gin Blossoms (1996)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27S0DHkTp-g

The Gin Blossoms were one of the greatest, and most tragic, rock bands of the 1990s. The greatness stems mainly from their hit 1992 album, New Miserable Experience, one of the greatest collections of jangle-pop tunes of this or any other decade. (It’s probably not a coincidence that their first post-NME single, “Til I Hear It From You”, was co-written with Marshall Crenshaw.)

The band’s co-founder and original guitarist, Doug Hopkins, wrote their first two hit singles (“Hey Jealousy” and “Found Out About You”), as well as two of NME’s best non-radio tracks, “Lost Horizons” and “Pieces of the Night”. Unfortunately, the drinking references in the latter two songs were based on personal experience; Hopkins had battled depression and alcoholism for many years, and his drinking problems worsened significantly while the band was recording NME, to the extent that the other members were forced to dismiss him from the band. In December of 1993, just as the band was hitting it big, Doug Hopkins shot himself to death.

“Follow You Down” was the first single from the band’s follow-up album, Congratulations I’m Sorry. (The title refers to how some people greeted the band, referring both to their success and to Hopkins’ death.) Musically, the song is irresistibly infectious, with a great uptempo melody and some tasty harmonica work. The lyrics are more bittersweet, and the chorus in particular has always brought Doug Hopkins to mind for me.

Anywhere you go

I’ll follow you down

Anyplace but those I know by heart

Anywhere you go, I’ll follow you down

I’ll follow you down, but not that far

#69 Break It To Me Gently -- Brenda Lee (1962)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxC3F1hvdo

The precocious “Little Miss Dynamite” first hit the charts before she even became a teenager, but her biggest hits came in the first half of the 1960s, working with producer Owen Bradley. Like Roy Orbison, she had the occasional uptempo hit (her first Top 10 single was “Sweet Nothin’s” in 1960), but there was a certain aching quality to her voice that showed to best advantage on mournful ballads. The titles of some of her biggest hits tell the story – “I’m Sorry” and “I Want to be Wanted” (both of which went to #1), “All Alone Am I”, “Losing You”, and “Fool #1”. “Break It To Me Gently” (which was also a hit for Juice Newton 20 years later) is my personal favorite, particularly the superb bridge – hard to believe how expressively she could interpret this song at the tender age of 16. Fortunately, the “I’ll never love again” that ends the song didn’t turn out to be prophetic, as she’s been married 40 years and counting.

#70 Undercover Of The Night -- The Rolling Stones (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HXZpCTN3rg

It was tough to omit “Dead Flowers”, but although the Stones don’t get into social or political commentary very often, they nail it here. Plus this rocks harder than almost anything they’ve ever done.

Indigo Girls / Shirlette Ammons at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (Annapolis), 4/19/2014

Finding the Maryland Hall (the old Annapolis High School) was a lot easier with the sun still out (as opposed to my fall trip to see Richard Thompson a few years back). We arrived around 7:15, just in time to get one of the last parking spaces in the main lot right next to the building. There was at least one other lot, and a couple of folks directing traffic. Given that the show was a sellout, getting out after it was over was unexpectedly painless – everyone was polite, and it didn’t take too long to get out of the lot and then back onto MD 450. We weren’t all that close to the front (Row Q, seats 2 and 4, on the aisle in the right-hand section), but nevertheless had a good view. (Not surprisingly, the sound was not as good as at Strathmore, where we had seen them a couple years back.)

Amy and Emily were great and the crowd was enthusiastic, although when the girls played “Power of Two” by request, the response to Emily’s invitation to sing along was pretty tepid. They started with “Become You” and ended the main set with “Galileo”, stopping along the way on favorites such as “Fill It Up Again”, “Wood Song”, “Get Out the Map”, and “Shame on You” (which got much of the crowd onto its feet), along with the less-frequently-heard “Love’s Recovery”. Amy also did “Broken Record” from her recent solo album Goodnight Tender. “Closer to Fine”, of course, closed out the show.

Somewhat oddly, there were more people going in and out during the show than I’m accustomed to at any indoor concert, much less one by the Indigo Girls. Louise speculated that it might have been related to the small “bar” in the hallway that was selling wine.

The evening also featured a short opening set by “Durham poet, songwriter, bassist, rapper and singer” Shirlette Ammons, who stuck to rapping for this engagement, featuring a number of tracks from her album Twilight for Gladys Bentley. The background music was decent  but somewhat generic bass-heavy hip-hop. The lyrics may have been great, but these (aging) ears were only able to pick out the occasional word and phrase.

April 20, 2014 – Nationals 3, Cardinals 2 – Nationals Park

Way to beat a good baseball team!

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 2^nd and 5^th 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.)