Attendance: 42,744
Game Time: 2:47
Weather: 66 degrees, cloudy
Wind: 5 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Jerry Meals, First Base - Ron Kulpa, Second Base
- Ed Hickox, Third Base - Chris Conroy
Seventh-inning stretch song: Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake
Section 133, Row UU, Seats 14-19 – lower level, about a third of the
way down the right field line, top row, on the aisle, good view (did suffer a
mid-game “beerfall” due to a spill in section above us)
Highlights – Strasburg tossed 7 efficient innings (63 strikes in 85
pitches) to get the win, allowing just 2 runs (both in the fourth inning) and 6
hits (2 of which were by Miami starting pitcher Edinson Volquez, a lifetime
.082 hitter), with no walks and 3 Ks … Harper put the Nats on the board in the
sixth with his fifth opening-day homer, and Adam Lind made his first Nats’
appearance count an inning later, with a pinch-hit two-run blast to give
Washington the lead for good … Solis and newly-anointed closer Blake Treinen
set the Marlins down 1-2-3 in the 8th and 9th to nail
down the win … perfect weather for baseball, and the drives down and back were
not nearly as bad as they could have been … food was good at the “Budweiser
Brew House” sit-down restaurant in center field (still the Red Porch Restaurant
to me), although getting and settling the charges took an excruciatingly long
time
Other – Nats didn’t take advantage of early opportunities, failing to
score in the first and fourth after getting their first two men on base …
ballpark operations lagged far behind the baseball side (getting an F- from one
frustrated fan on Twitter), as they were having “technical problems” with both
their eCard and credit card processing … fans wanting to use cash found that
the ATMs were down as well … it took one member of our party 55 minutes to get
a pretzel and two sodas … to top off the frustration, the “Magic 8-Ball” giveaway items were not distributed until fans exited
(with vouchers distributed on the way in), causing lines to get out of the park
… so far, more than 24 hours later, no apology to fans that I’ve been able to
find, via either Twitter, email, or press release
