Attendance:
41,044
Game Time:
2:45
Weather: 76
degrees, sunny
Wind: 8 mph
Umpires:
Home Plate - Ben May, First Base - Bruce Dreckman, Second Base - Alfonso
Marquez, Third Base - Dan Bellino
Seventh-inning
stretch song: Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson f/ Bruno Mars
Bryce Harper
didn’t hit one out today but positively impacted the game in other ways. He
drove in the Nats’ second run in the bottom of the fifth with a groundout,
scoring Escobar who had just tripled. Two innings later, with Span on third and
two outs, he singled in Span and then scored on Ryan Zimmerman’s double. In the
top of the inning, he threw out the Phils’ Odubel Herrera at second on what
looked like a single to right.
Gio Gonzalez
held the Phils down for 6.1 innings, and Matt Williams played his bullpen cards
perfectly, using Barrett, Grace, and Janssen to bridge the gap to Storen, who
notched his 14th save and won free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches for all of
the 40,000+ in attendance. (This is getting to be an expensive promotion, which
I don’t expect to be repeated next season.)
Phils
manager Ryne Sandberg’s bullpen moves didn’t work out nearly as well for him. In
the bottom of the seventh, with two outs and Denard Span on third, he elected
to bring in LHP Jake Diekman to pitch to Harper, rather than simply walking him
and keeping the right-handed Justin DeFratus in to face Ryan Zimmerman. Harper
foiled the strategy by singling in Span, and then Zimmerman added insult to
injury against Diekman by doubling in an additional insurance run.
Worst
traffic ever getting to the stadium, with the GW Parkway backed up almost all
the way to the Memorial Bridge. Left home at 11:30, didn’t get to my parking
lot until an hour later.
