Serendipity #21

Never Wanted Your Love – She & Him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdJbqGeYM6E

Heard 10/2/2014 around 11:45, at Zoe’s Kitchen (Rockville)

October 3, 2014 – Giants 3, Nationals 2 (NLDS Game 1) – Nationals Park

Opening act falls flat (borrowed from front page of today’s Post)

 

Umpires: HP: Laz Diaz. 1B: Vic Carapazza. 2B: Tom Hallion. 3B: Hunter Wendelstedt. LF: Mike Winters. RF: Brian Knight.

Weather: 70 degrees, overcast.

Wind: 2 mph, In from LF.

T: 3:55.

Att: 44,035.

 

In their 2012 playoff debut, the Nats won Game 1 in St. Louis, only to drop the NLDS 3 games to 2. (But enough about that.) We’ll have to hope that they reverse the script in 2014.

We left Westat at 11:00 for the 3:07 start, encountered less traffic than usual, and walked up to Nando’s to eat after finding a working parking meter. The pregame introductions brought the usual sense of anticipation to the ballpark. Only two members of the Giants drew much notice – nice applause for former Nat Michael Morse (who’s recovering from a strained oblique and is inactive for the series), and a much less warm reception for Game 2 starter Tim Hudson.

The game certainly didn’t go Washington’s way, although they had their chances. Strasburg threw hard in his postseason debut, but managed only two strikeouts in 5-plus innings of work, as the Giants hit 8 singles off him but nothing for extra bases. Strasburg did allow the leadoff man to reach base in each of his final four innings (3 hits, plus his only walk). They notched their first run in the fourth, aided by LaRoche’s questionable decision to go after the lead runner on a sacrifice bunt and a later passed ball by Ramos. They struck again in the fifth on two hits and a Hunter Pence stolen base. Matt Williams took Strasburg out after the Giants led off the sixth with two base hits. Jerry Blevins came in to pitch out of that jam, but Giants put up a crucial third run in the seventh after second baseman Joe Panik led off against Craig Stammen with a triple that Denard Span couldn’t quite haul in.

Meanwhile, the Nats battled Giants starter Jake Peavy, running up his pitch count but getting only a pair of two-out walks through the first four innings. Bryce Harper finally managed an infield single to lead off the fifth and bring the sellout crowd back to life, but he was immediately erased when Ramos grounded into a double play. They finally mounted a mild threat an inning later when Nate Schierholz led off with a pinch-hit double. Two fly outs later saw him still on second, but Peavy walked Jayson Werth for the second time to conclude his outing, and lefty specialist Javier Lopez walked LaRoche to load the bases. Giants skipper Bruce Bochy then brought in hard-throwing rookie Hunter Strickland, who fanned Ian Desmond to end the inning.

Down 3-0 in the middle of the seventh, we decided it was time to pull out the rally minions. Sure enough, Harper led off with a tape-measure blast to right off Strickland, and two batters later Asdrubal Cabrera put one into the Nats bullpen to cut the lead to one. They managed one more threat in the eighth on singles by Rendon and LaRoche, but another Desmond strikeout and a fielder’s choice by Harper ended the threat, and the Nats offense for the day.

Remembering Dick Cerri, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center (College Park MD), 9/27/2014

Dick Cerri, who hosted the Music Americana program on Washington radio stations for more than 30 years, died in October of 2013. The World Folk Music Association, which Cerri co-founded with Tom Paxton, put together a concert featuring many of Dick’s favorite performers – Paxton, Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul & Mary), Jonathan Edwards (“Sunshine”), Bill Danoff (best known for co-writing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Afternoon Delight”), and many others. In addition to the musical performances, the show also featured spoken tributes by Dick’s daughter and granddaughter and several local radio personalities (including Robert Aubry Davis and Mary Cliff). The show started shortly after 7:00 and went well past 11:00, not surprising given the large roster of performers.

Folk-comedy trio Modern Man started things off on the right foot with “Folk Music in the Nude” (yes, there really is an annual clothing-optional folk festival in Paw Paw WV) and “Like a River”. Maine folk duos Schooner Fare and Squid Jiggers did nice back-to-back sets to start off the post-intermission portion of the show. For me, however, the clear show-stopper was a great vocal rendition of “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” by Chad Mitchell of the Chad Mitchell Trio.

September 28, 2014 – Nationals 1, Marlins 0 – Nationals Park

A no-hit wonder (borrowed from this morning’s Washington Post)

Umpires: HP: Alan Porter. 1B: Gary Cederstrom. 2B: Mark Ripperger. 3B: Lance Barksdale.

Weather: 79 degrees, sunny.

Wind: 3 mph, Out to CF.

T: 2:01.

Att: 35,085. [Nats were actually outdrawn by the woeful Phillies, at 38,082, on their respective Fan Appreciation Days.]

It didn’t start out as a great day for me. Traffic on the GW Parkway slowed much more than usual, so I arrived late enough that I decided to skip the originally-planned walk down to Subway. (Went with the Miami Cuban Sandwich instead.) Then, once I got to the park, I realized that I had left my cellphone at home. So I was a little out of sorts, despite the wonderful weather.

My initial wish list for the final game of the season was (1) everybody staying healthy, (2) Jordan Zimmermann pitching well, (3) one more hit from Denard Span to break the Nats’ single-season record, and (4) winning the game. Ian Desmond did his part towards #4 by homering off Henderson Alvarez in the bottom of the second, for what would turn out to be the only run of the game. One inning later, Span took care of #3, as he lined a double to right field and got a standing ovation as he left the game for a pinch-runner. Matt Williams’ plan for the regulars soon became obvious; get them out of game after 2 trips to the plate and give the reserves some playing time. (The only exceptions were Ryan Zimmerman, still in need of at-bats against major league pitching following his return from the DL, and catcher Wilson Ramos, who went the whole way.)

I remember remarking to Terry that I expected that Zimmermann would only pitch 6 innings (the same as Strasburg the previous day), so that a couple of the relief pitchers could get some action prior to the four-day break until the first playoff game. I was actually so preoccupied with Williams’ lineup maneuvers that I didn’t realize J-Zim had a no-hitter going until after the sixth inning, when I was out on the concourse and heard Bob Carpenter on the radio broadcast saying that there were 11 hits in the game, “all by the Nats.”

Naturally the anticipation mounted from there. Zimmermann got a standing ovation after retiring the Marlins 1-2-3 in the top of the eighth, but since he was still under 100 pitches I think we all expected that he would come out for the ninth. As we predicted, Williams took Ryan Zimmerman out after his final at-bat in the bottom of the eighth, replacing him with Steven Souza Jr. in the ninth. The rest, as they say, is history.

September 26, 2014 (Game 1) – Nationals 4, Marlins 0 – Nationals Park

Fister fantastic

Umpires: HP: Gary Cederstrom. 1B: Lance Barksdale. 2B: Toby Basner. 3B: Alan Porter.

Weather: 71 degrees, partly cloudy.

Wind: 1 mph, In from LF.

T: 2:31.

Att: 27,920. [with a lot fewer actually in the stands]

Complete-game shutouts are an increasingly endangered species in baseball, dominated as it is by bullpens and pitch counts. Through Saturday, there were only 33 by National League pitchers during 2014, so I feel fortunate to have seen two of the three produced this season by Nats pitchers – Tanner Roark’s gem in April and Doug Fister’s effort this afternoon.

Fister yielded harmless singles to Miami second baseman Donovan Solano in the first and fourth, and hit catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia to lead off the eighth, with none of the runners making it as far as second base. We gave Fister a standing ovation when he finished the 8^th just in case, although since he hadn’t hit the 100-pitch mark yet we hoped that he would be back for the 9^th. Things got interesting in the final frame, when with two outs Solano sliced a ball just inside the foul line into right field for a triple. Casey McGehee then lined a shot that looked destined to be an RBI single to right, but Asdrubal Cabrera made a leaping grab to snag the ball and preserve the shutout.

The Nats gave Fister all the runs he would need in the first inning, starting with a one-out homer by Anthony Rendon. They added a second run later that inning on a LaRoche single, Desmond double, and a passed ball. They wasted chances in the second and third against Marlins starter Jarred Cosart, getting five walks but not being able to manage even a single hit. They finally nicked Cosart for another run in the fifth, when walks to Zimmerman and Desmond were followed by a Cabrera RBI single. Fister helped himself in the bottom of the sixth, lining a leadoff double off hard-throwing Miami reliever Sam Dyson and eventually scoring on a two-out Zimmerman single.

The Nats played flawless ball, despite this being the third game in a set of back-to-back day-night doubleheaders. Needing one win to clinch home-field advantage through the National League playoffs, Matt Williams went with his A team in the afternoon game, sitting only Jayson Werth (Zimmerman was in left with Harper in right) and Wilson Ramos.

Section 130, Row M, Seat 1 – A couple of weeks ago, I decided to trade in my ticket for the Wednesday night game with the Mets, and to upgrade to a lower-level seat. Starting earlier this month, you can now pick a particular location when getting single-game seats, so I found an aisle seat in Section 130 just beyond first base, about a dozen rows back from the field. (Oddly enough, this was only one section away from where we were sitting for Roark’s shutout.) In hindsight, the exchange  was a great choice, as the Wednesday night game wound up being rained out, and there was still some rain during Thursday afternoon’s makeup. Friday’s weather, on the other hand, was fantastic. I got to the Shady Grove Metro station in plenty of time to get a parking space, and ate lunch at Nando’s prior to walking over to the park, where I later took advantage of junk-food specials – $1 for a Cyclone popsicle and $2 for a bag of Cracker Jack. (Ironically, my Cracker Jack prize was a Phillies sticker.)