July 26, 2017 – Nats 8, Brewers 5 – Nationals Park

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/244657254/nats-rally-past-brewers-with-seven-run-eighth/

 

Attendance: 35,296

Game Time: 2:58

Weather: 84 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 8 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Chris Segal, First Base - Mike Everitt, Second Base - Jordan Baker, Third Base - Bruce Dreckman

 

Notes – Brewers jumped on top in the first on a monster HR by Domingo Santana and a second run when Travis Shaw doubled, stole third with no resistance and scored when Wieters couldn’t corral a third strike … Gio blanked Milwaukee for the next 6 innings, fanning 8 and allowing only 3 more hits and 1 walk … after being shut out Tuesday night, the Nats continued their offensive futility for most of the game against Jimmy Nelson, who fanned 10 … Murphy finally broke the spell with a seventh-inning homer … Nelson was pulled after walking Wieters to lead off the 8^th, and the Nats tied things up on a Goodwin double and Difo single … with 2 outs, Zimmerman gave the Nats the lead on a 2-run double, although Difo fell on the way home and barely managed to get there safely … after an intentional walk to Murphy, Nats extended their lead on run-scoring hits by Rendon, Lind, and Pedro Severino … in the middle of everything, Harper struck out, threw a temper tantrum and was ejected for the 10^th time in his career and the 4^th in the past two seasons … Brewers made things a little interesting in the 9^th, as Doolittle yielded a walk, homer, single, and double before finally getting the final two outs

 

Other – another long, slow drive to the park (about an hour and three-quarters), with a circuitous route to our usual parking area as the southern section of Half Street SW is now closed due to construction work on the new stadium for DC United

#154 Girlfriend – Matthew Sweet (1991)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12OBlcHx9E

 

The quote from the CD packaging – “Don’t be afraid to play it loud!” – couldn’t be more appropriate, at least when applied to the title track from Sweet’s 1991 album. The song itself and Sweet’s vocals are great, but what really makes the track is the searing guitar work by the late (and largely unknown) Robert Quine. If you ever feel like entering an air-guitar competition, you couldn’t go wrong with this.

#153 Dark Necessities – Red Hot Chili Peppers (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0oIoR9mLwc

Intro that gradually builds for 40 seconds. That bass line. Ominous lyrics. Best song in the Chili Peppers’ 30+ year career.

Yes, despite rumors to the contrary, rock and roll is still alive and well.

#152 Train In The Distance – Paul Simon (1983)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YUEziX25DQ

 

In commercial terms, 1983’s Hearts and Bones album is one of Simon’s least successful, both in terms of its own sales and its failure to produce a Top 40 single. It did produce my two favorite Paul Simon songs of all time: the title cut and “Train in the Distance”. I avoided choosing between them for a long time, and even then it was basically a coin flip. Simon apparently liked them as well, as he included both in his 1988 collection Negotiations and Love Songs (whose title is taken from the lyrics of “Train in the Distance”).