April 28, 2016 – Orioles 10, White Sox 2 – Oriole Park at Camden Yards

http://m.orioles.mlb.com/news/article/175194186/orioles-break-out-of-offensive-slump-in-win

 

Attendance: 14,568 (questionable whether there were even 10,000 actual people there)

Game Time: 3:10

Weather: 48 degrees, overcast

Wind: 5 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Cory Blaser, First Base - Sam Holbrook, Second Base - Carlos Torres, Third Base - Gerry Davis

 

Section 374, Row 24, Seats 14-15 (left field in foul territory, one row from the top of the stadium)

 

The game – White Sox took the lead in the top of the first on a two-run homer by Todd Frazier … O’s got one back in the bottom of the frame on an Adam Jones double … in the third, Baltimore battered John Danks for 4 runs in the space of 3 batters (Machado RBI double, Davis HR, Trumbo HR), eventually batting around … Tyler Wilson just missed being eligible for the win, getting lifted with 2 outs in the fifth after throwing 91 pitches (he threw 70 in his only previous start of the season) … O’s put it away with a 5-run sixth, climaxed by a Machado grand slam

 

Other – O’s provided 2,000 complimentary tickets as part of Volunteer Appreciation Night (including some to the Metropolitan Washington Ear) … chilly night with a breeze, started out dry but wound up with a mist that blew onto us although we were under cover… my seatmate was the “Good Sport Designated Driver” of the game, winning a nice bag of Orioles swag (and getting to drive the Prius back to Jessup)

April 27, 2016 – Phillies 3, Nationals 0 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/174941188/jeremy-hellickson-phillies-beat-nationals

 

Attendance: 24,186 (although not nearly that many actual fannies in the seats)

Game Time: 2:59

Weather: 54 degrees, overcast

Wind: 6 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Will Little, First Base - Ted Barrett, Second Base - Sean Barber, Third Base - Angel Hernandez

Seventh-inning stretch song: Hey Ya! – Outkast (maybe this is National Outkast Week???)

 

Couple brief stretches of light rain, and it definitely felt chillier than the listed 54 degrees … took full advantage of the 2-for-1 Nats Dogs and $2 Peanuts coupons (they were out of the small size, so generously gave us a full bag) … Nats offense was as cold as the weather off Phils starter Jeremy Hellickson and two relievers, getting only 5 baserunners for the game, only 2 of which got as far as second base (Harper steal in the first, Murphy double in the second) … Phils opened the scoring with a small-ball run in the 6^th, on a leadoff Odubel Herrera single, Freddy Galvis sacrifice, wild pitch by Gio, and Darin Ruf sac fly … added another in the 7^th (singles by Hernandez and Goeddel, sac bunt by Hellickson, bad throw to the plate by Rendon on Bourjos’ grounder), and a third in the 8^th on a homer by Ruiz

April 26, 2016 – Phillies 4, Nationals 3 – Nationals Park

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/20160426174707848?game_pk=447172

 

Attendance: 25,097

Game Time: 3:25

Weather: 81 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 12 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Angel Hernandez, First Base - Will Little, Second Base - Ted Barrett, Third Base - Sean Barber

Seventh-inning stretch song: Hey Ya! – Outkast

 

Section 108, Row Z, Seat 1 (plus 8 others nearby)

 

Only one member of our party of 9 was rooting for the Nats (I suspect selective recruiting) … longtime fan favorite DC Washington nailed the National Anthem as usual … Phils jumped on Scherzer for two quick runs on a 4-pitch walk to leadoff hitter Odubel Herrera followed immediately by a home run by supersub Andres Blanco … with Phils leading 3-1, Nats tied it off Vince Velasquez in the bottom of the fifth, sparked by a one-out single by Scherzer and later RBI singles by Harper and Zimmerman … both starters gave up 3 runs in 6 innings, although Velasquez was considerably more efficient (84 pitches vs. 116) … Phils got him the lead and eventual win in the top of the 7^th on consecutive doubles by Blanco and Maikel Franco (who tripped and fell on his way to second but stayed in the game) … with the Nats down to their last out, Rendon singled off Phils closer Jeanmar Gomez, bringing Harper to the plate with the game on the line … Gomez induced him to ground out to third on the eighth pitch of a classic at-bat … one member of our party nabbed a foul ball earlier, after a couple of odd ricochets ... no rain at all, despite an ominous forecast earlier

April 24, 2016 – Nationals 6, Twins 5 (16 innings) – Nationals Park

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/174231178/nationals-win-in-16-innings-with-walkoff-hr?game_pk=447139

 

Boswell column

 

Attendance: 35,397

Game Time: 5:56 (longest regular season game in Nationals history)

Weather: 64 degrees, sunny

Wind: 4 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Toby Basner, First Base - James Hoye, Second Base - Chad Fairchild, Third Base - Jim Joyce

Seventh/fourteenth inning stretch songs: Do You Love Me – The Contours / It’s Not Unusual – Tom Jones

 

Q: What do you get when you combine a superstar getting a day off, his replacement in the starting lineup, the guy who took his spot after he pinch-hit, and a pitcher at the plate who hadn’t batted since 2010?

A:  The epic victory that will forever live in Nats’ lore as “The Twilight Zone Game”.

 

A greatly summarized blow-by-blow follows. On a couple of occasions I yelled “Great move Dusty!” from my seat; these are denoted by the abbreviation GMD.

 

·        On Kids’ Opening Day, with hundreds of kids in attendance wearing Harper jerseys, manager Dusty Baker opts to give RF Bryce Harper the day off.

·        Matt den Dekker, who Dusty played in RF instead of Harper, leads off the bottom of the first with a home run [GMD #1].

·        Strasburg is dominant through the seventh inning, despite allowing the tying run in the third.

·        The Nats fail to support Strasburg with any more runs, despite having two on with none out in the first and fifth innings.

·        In the top of the eighth, with two on and one out, Twins second baseman (and former member of the Bethesda Big Train) Brian Dozier works a full count and fouls the next two pitches off. Strasburg tries to get another fast ball past him, which he deposits into the left field stands for a 4-1 Minnesota lead.

·        The Nats strike back quickly in the bottom of the frame, on a two-run double by Wilson Ramos with none out off Twins reliever (and former Phillies prospect) Trevor May. With first base open the remainder of the inning, Dusty passes on a couple chances to use Harper as a pinch hitter, as the inning ends with the Nats still one run behind.

·        After Felipe Rivero retires the Twins 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth, Baker finally sends up Harper to lead off the inning, batting for the struggling Michael A. Taylor. Naturally, Harper hits one out on a full-count pitch to tie the game [GMD #2].

·        In the bottom of the 10^th, with one out and one on and no position players left on the bench, Baker sends starting pitcher Joe Ross up to hit for Papelbon. Ross promptly singles [GMD #3], although the Nats fail to score.

·        Top and bottom of the 11^th inning – all 6 batters strike out. (Nats pitchers fanned 20 for the game, breaking the previous team record of 18 Ks in an extra-inning game.)

·        12^th through the 14^th – not a lot happens.

·        The Twins finally scratch out a run in the top of the 15^th off Yusmeiro Petit in his fifth inning of relief to take the lead.

·        In the bottom of the inning, Rendon and Werth are retired. With the pitcher’s spot on deck, the Twins walk Danny Espinosa on four pitches to bring up pitcher Oliver Perez, who hasn’t had a plate appearance in six years. To further insure their victory, the Twins bring in a fresh pitcher to face him. With no more relievers available, Baker has no choice but to let Perez bat. After Espinosa steals second, Perez shocks everyone by placing a nice bunt down the third base line. Twins catcher John Ryan Murphy picks up the ball and thows it past the first baseman and down the right field line, allowing Espinosa to score the tying run.

·        Perez gets the Twins out in the top of the 16^th.

·        Chris Heisey, whom Dusty put in RF in the tenth rather than keeping Harper in the game, leads off the bottom of the 16^th with a walk-off homer [GMD #4].

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (The River Tour) – Royal Farms Arena (Baltimore), 4/20/2016

GA Floor -- towards the rear of “the pit”, left side against the barricade

 

The couple in front of us in line as we were waiting to get in had two signs. One said “1^st show”, while the other said “110^th show”.

 

I was closer to the former, this being my fourth Springsteen concert, but for the first time I had one of the coveted “GA Floor” tickets. Bruce’s arena shows have a standard seating protocol for general admission tickets. You show up during a specified time period (in our case, between 2:00 and 5:00 in the afternoon) and get a wristband with a sequentially-assigned number. After that, you can leave and go about your business – we headed down to the Inner Harbor for lunch – until near the end of the number-pickup window, when you return and line up by number. Finally a fan randomly picks one of the numbers that have been handed out (a “random start” for any statisticians in the audience), and fans are let in starting with that number, with the process wrapping around so that the fans with numbers below the one selected are the last to get in.

 

There’s one additional factor: the floor area of the arena is divided into a front section (the “pit”) and a rear section. Depending on the site configuration, only a certain number of fans are allowed into the pit – in our case, they announced that it would be the first 500. We got there around 1:30 and got numbers 48 and 49. The number selected was (if I remember correctly) 1033. After checking with someone who had picked up a number relatively late, we estimated that maybe 1600 numbers were distributed, which meant that we would not quite make it into the front section. We actually wound up being pleasantly surprised that we did make the cut; apparently the cutoff was at 70. We still aren’t sure whether we overestimated what the maximum number was or whether they decided at the last minute that the pit could accommodate more that 500 people.

 

Naturally, given that we were among the last to get into the pit, we didn’t get right in front of the stage. I was, however, pretty happy with where we wound up. The entire pit area is surrounded by a barricade, and we positioned ourselves next to the barricade on the left side. Although we were near the back, we had a relatively unobstructed view of the stage, we could lean against the barricade, and the area wasn’t nearly as crowded as I had expected. It was also relatively easy for us to get in and out of the area for food, beer, bathroom breaks etc.

 

The other great thing about our location was that there’s a path between the barricades and the seats (on the sides) and the front barricades of the rear section of the floor. Part of the Springsteen concert experience is that Bruce comes back along the barricades during a few songs (3 in our case) to get closer to the rest of the crowd, which means that if you’re at the barricades, you may actually get to touch The Boss, and/or get some close-up photos.

 

There are a couple of downsides to standing-room tickets, although they’re less significant than the advantages. The first, obviously, is that you’re standing for a long time, in our case from when we lined up around 4:30 until the show ended about 7 hours later. (We could perhaps have sat down on the floor for a bit while waiting for the show to start, but didn’t.) I held up reasonably well, but my back was starting to feel the strain around 10:30 or so. The other drawback is that some folks tend to get a bit chatty, especially during the slower numbers.

 

This tour featured Bruce and the band performing his 1980 two-disc album The River in its entirely (which took about the first two hours of the show), followed by a selection of other songs. Highlights for me of course included “Hungry Heart” (although I personally don’t have a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack), “The Price You Pay”, and a reworked version of “Point Blank”. He also changed the post-River song lineup a bit, starting with “Prove It All Night” and “My Love Will Not Let You Down” (which I first heard in a Mary Chapin Carpenter show at the 9:30 Club). There was also an on-stage marriage proposal, strategically placed right before Bruce did “I Wanna Marry You”.

 

All in all, a great experience. Even getting out of the parking garage and downtown Baltimore wasn’t nearly as messy as I had feared.

 

Setlist