Umpires:
HP: Dana DeMuth. 1B: Ed Hickox. 2B: Jon Byrne. 3B: Lance Barrett.
Weather:
67 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 6
mph, In from LF.
T: 3:08.
Att:
34,413.
Section
107, Row FF, Seats 11-12 – our “home away from home” for several bobblehead
games (same row as the April 27 Padres game)
One of the
Nats’ biggest problems so far this season has been falling behind early,
especially in the first inning. (Comeback victories are nice, but it’s even
nicer not to have so many early deficits to overcome.) Friday night was a
welcome exception, as Tanner Roark retired the visitors with relative ease in
the top of the first, while the Nats combined some timely hitting with Mets
defensive miscues to put up three runs in the bottom of the frame. They added
to their lead two innings later, with three hits (Ramos, Hairston, and Moore)
and two more runs.
Roark
pitched effectively through the first 4 innings, never allowing a runner to
advance beyond first base. However, his pitch count was climbing rapidly, as
the Mets seemed determined to wait him out. (The first time through the order,
not a single New York batter swung at the first pitch, although 8 of the 9 were
strikes.) The visitors finally caught up with him in the fifth, scoring two
runs and waking up the bullpen before Roark retired David Wright with two out
and two on to end it.
Ross
Detweiler replaced Roark in the sixth and retired the 3 (lefthanded) hitters he
faced, and Storen turned in an efficient seventh. Clippard allowed a single to
the first batter he faced and a two-out walk to Bobby Abreu, but escaped
without damage. There was a little more excitement in the ninth, as Soriano
began by allowing a deep fly ball from the light-hitting Anthony Recker that
Span turned into an out. With Tejada at the plate, a fan ran onto the field (first
one I can remember at Nats Park) and made it almost all the way around the
bases before being corralled by security. Soriano got Tejada out, but then
proceeded to walk two more weak hitters, Juan Lagares (on 4 pitches) and Eric
Young Jr., bringing one of the Mets best hitters (Daniel Murphy) to the plate
as the tying run. Murphy drilled Soriano’s first pitch deep to right, but
Jayson Werth made a leaping catch to end the game.
Traffic on
the way there was the usual rush-hour mess, but we made it down in about an
hour. Decided to go with the Cincinnati chili bowl from Hard Times, a relative
bargain at $7.00. Weather was relatively comfortable, although much to everyone’s
surprise we started to get some light rain in the 8th inning.
In a minor
highlight, former Phil Greg Dobbs got a pinch single in his first Nats’ at-bat.
The Fan of
the Game contest produced a mild upset (since a kid almost always wins), with
the loudest applause going to a guy sitting near us sporting a cap with buffalo
horns (presumably to match the Wilson Ramos bobblehead giveaway).
