Weather: 85
degrees, sunny
Time: 2:46
Attendance: 4,060
Section 211,
Row 15, Seat 3 – section just to the right of home plate, row just below the
press box, fortunately in the shade, as it got much hotter than the listed 85
as the afternoon went on
Just because
you’re staying in Kissimmee (west side) doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll
have an easy trip to Osceola County Stadium, in Kissimmee (east side). On my
way there, the Google navigation app on my phone detected a traffic incident on
the straight-shot route (192) and initially advised me to take a toll-road alternative.
Having looked forward to a toll-free day, I resisted, willing to risk the
slowdown. About a mile later, she calmly recommended I turn right on something
called N. Poinciana Blvd. This time I decided to trust her and was rewarded by
a smooth detour that didn’t add any mileage and got around the problem. Coming
back on 192, however, was SLOW all the way, primarily due to the amount of time
spent waiting at traffic lights. (The Clearwater-St. Pete area long ago lessened
their congestion significantly by building interchanges on many of their
busiest roads.) I guess this was the Kissimmee rush hour; not sure whether
using the nav would have helped.
Parking was
ten bucks – higher than I expected for parking on a grass lot, but at least
close to the stadium. Passed on the $8 beer in favor of bottled water ($3), and
picked up a decent southwest chicken wrap (with chips) for 9 dollars.
The Nats
plated 4 runs in a lengthy top of the first, off a wild Sam Deduno. Espinosa looked
good against the right-handed Deduno, hitting a hard double to right that
scored Tony Gwynn Jr., who opened with a walk. After Harper’s groundout
advanced Espinosa to 3rd, Tyler Moore singled him home and Mike Carp
followed with a single. Deduno then lost the plate entirely, walking Uggla and
Lobaton to force home the Nats’ third run, and a sac fly by Frandsen finished
off the early scoring.
Harper made
the Nats lead 5-0 in the top of the 4th with a massive shot to right
off Houston reliever Jake Buchanan; Jason Castro answered back in the bottom of
the frame with a homer off Max Scherzer, for the only run the Nats’ starter
yielded in a tidy 5 innings of work. Scherzer’s hitting, to be charitable, is
not as far along as his pitching – the Nats chose to let him hit rather than
using a DH – although he did manage to work a walk in his second at-bat.
Perhaps Buchanan couldn’t quite believe he was trying to bunt with two outs.
The Nats
bullpen did manage to make things interesting after Scherzer departed. In the
bottom of the sixth, Astros third-baseman Luis Valbuena, who typically
struggles against left-handed pitching, hit a two-run shot off Nats’ southpaw
Xavier Cedeno to cut the margin to 5-3. Jerry Blevins pitched a 1-2-3 seventh after
Kila Ka’aihue hit a solo shot in the top of the frame, and in one of those
only-in-spring-training moments, was pinch-hit for by “twin” Josh Johnson, who
was also wearing #13. Heath Bell, however, was unable to retire any of the four
batters he faced in the eighth (walk, error, single, single), but Manny Delcarmen
came in to limit the damage to an additional run, getting top prospect Carlos
Correa to ground into an inning-ending double play after giving up a sac fly to
cut the lead to one run. The Nats got one back in the top of the ninth when Ka’aihue
doubled in Delta Cleary Jr. (who?), and Delcarmen retired Houston in the ninth.
(Appropriate that a former Boston pitcher got the save, since I had Red Sox
fans sitting on both sides of me.)
