August 13, 2017 – Giants 4, Nats 2 (Game 1 of split double-header) – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/248184780/giants-chris-stratton-strikes-out-10-vs-nats/?topicId=27118414

 

Attendance: 30,866

Game Time: 3:09

Weather: 82 degrees, sunny

Wind: 9 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Ryan Blakney, First Base - Ryan Additon, Second Base - Jerry Meals, Third Base - Chris Guccione

Seventh-inning stretch song: Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake

 

Highlights – fill-in starter AJ Cole did all right, going 6 innings with the only hiccup being a 3-run second inning … Nats Park Public Enemy #1 Hunter Strickland was booed early and often (as he walked in from the bullpen, when he was announced, when the inning ended) before, during and after he pitched the 8^th inning … Rendon exacted a measure of revenge for Harper’s beaning with a 2-run tater … new bullpen stalwarts Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson did the honors for the pre-game autograph signing

 

Other – Nats weren’t able to do anything against SF starter Chris Stratton, who began the game with an ERA above 6 but pitched shutout ball into the 7^th, fanning 10 in the process … traffic was relatively light coming down, although there was quite a backup on the GW Parkway on the way back

Mary Chapin Carpenter with Lucinda Williams – Wolf Trap, 8/12/2017

Row H, Seats 32-33

 

It was certainly not a night to be on the Filene Center lawn, as shortly after Lucinda Williams started her set at 7:30 the skies opened up, with torrential rain and enough wind that we felt a few drops, although we were sitting right in the middle of our row. Despite the weather, the two women (and their excellent bands) combined for almost three hours of top-notch musical entertainment.

 

Williams referenced the violence in Charlottesville earlier in the day both in her intro to “World Without Tears” and with “We’ve Come To Far To Turn Around”, which despite being a new song has a chorus that makes it sound like a classic from the early 1960s Civil Rights movement. Other than that, she ranged from previous-century classics such as “Joy” (her finale), “Drunken Angel”, and “Lake Charles” to “Protection”, “West Memphis”, and “Foolishness” from 2014’s Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone. The not-unexpected high point, of course, came midway through her set, when she brought Mary Chapin out to duet with her on “Passionate Kisses”.

 

Carpenter also had her share of topicality, opening with a one-two punch of “The Times They Are A-Changin'” and “Stones In The Road” (with a clever lyrical alteration referencing tweets), and then including “The Age Of Miracles” a few songs later. Most of the highlights came from her longtime uptempo favorites, most notably with a blistering version of “The Bug” that let her bandmembers stretch out, and her first two encores, “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her” and “Down At The Twist And Shout”. Following that, she thanked the crowd for continuing to support live music and general and her in particular, mentioning that once again she was ending her summer tour at Wolf Trap. She then noted that this was the 30^th anniversary of her first album, Hometown Girl, and concluded by performing the title track. There couldn’t have been a better way to end the evening.

 

Setlist (Lucinda Williams) 

Setlist (Mary Chapin Carpenter)