Attendance:
28,039
Game Time:
3:03
Weather: 81
degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 1 mph
Umpires:
Home Plate - Rob Drake, First Base - D.J. Reyburn, Second Base - Joe West,
Third Base - Clint Fagan
Seventh-inning
stretch song: I Got You (I Feel Good) – James Brown
On a perfect
day for baseball, the struggling Nats desperately needed a win, coming off a
disastrous 3-7 West Coast road trip and a split of the first two games of the
series against the woeful Brewers. Things certainly did not start off well, as
Nats-killer Scooter Gennett led off with a single to center and Jonathan Lucroy
followed with a round-tripper, putting the home team in an immediate 2-0 hole off
Jordan Zimmermann.
The Nats got
one back in the bottom of the inning. Werth led off with a double, and Rendon
got him to third with a grounder to second. Matt Garza then fanned Harper for
the second out, but Zim picked him up with a double to center, scoring Rendon
to cut the lead in half.
The Nats
took the lead for good in the third, which started inauspiciously as Garza
fanned the first two batters. He then walked Rendon with Harper on deck –
generally not a good idea. Bryce doubled down the left field line, sending
Rendon to third. Garza then walked Ryan Zimmerman (semi-intentionally?) on four
pitches to bring up Desmond. Ian hit a high chopper to the right of the mound
which Garza couldn’t handle to tie the score, and Danny Espinosa had the
biggest hit of the game, just missing a home run on a double to right-center
that cleared the bases.
The Nats
extended their lead with another 4-spot in the bottom of the fifth. With one
out, Ramos homered, Michael Taylor drew a walk, and Zimmermann sacrificed him
to second. The Brewers’ decision to lift Garza at that point backfired, as
reliever Corey Knebel walked Werth on four pitches, then served up a homer to
Rendon.
Zimmermann
wasn’t at his sharpest but managed to get the win, giving up single runs in the
fifth (a Gennett homer) and sixth before being taken out with two down in the
sixth. Rivero, Janssen, Storen, and Papelbon got the Nats to the finish line,
with the only damage being a Khris Davis four-bagger on the first pitch Drew
threw in the eighth.
The Clara
Barton Parkway route (leaving at 11:15) again worked reasonably well; despite a
bottleneck on Independence Ave. (the Kutz Bridge was down to one lane) and a
wrong turn on my part which took me onto Maine Avenue, I still made it in 40
minutes.
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