As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Thursday, July 19, 2018

July 17, 2018 – American League 8, National League 6, 10 innings (All-Star Game) – Nationals Park


https://www.mlb.com/news/american-league-wins-all-star-game-in-extras/c-286288460 

Attendance: 43,843
Duration: 3:34
Weather: 82 degrees, Partly Cloudy
Wind: 3 MPH Out to Center
Umpires: HP: Ted Barrett. 1B: Jim Reynolds. 2B: Alfonso Márquez. 3B: Andy Fletcher. LF: Mike Muchlinski. RF: Cory Blaser. 

Section 312, Row D, Seats 18-19 – great seats, on the aisle and almost directly behind home plate. Not sure how we managed that … 

Overall summary – It was the perfect game for 2018, with almost half of the plate appearances ending in one of the Three True Outcomes (strikeout, walk, homer). The 10 home runs obliterated the previous All-Star record of 6, and there were more strikeouts (25) than hits (20). Only one run scored on something other than a four-bagger. Somewhat unexpectedly, relief aces for both leagues were pounded, and a starting pitcher got the save. Beyond that, it was actually a calm game for the first 7 innings, and an offensive explosion for the final 3. 

Game notes (innings 1-7) – hometown hero Max Scherzer got the start for the NL, fanning Mookie Betts and Jose Altuve to begin the evening, adding Ks of Jose Abreu and Salvador Perez to end his outing in the second after an Aaron Judge homer … Mike Trout added to the AL lead with a round-tripper off Jacob deGrom an inning later, but Willson Contreras got the home team on the board in the bottom of the frame by taking Blake Snell deep on his first pitch … the NL finally tied it following the seventh-inning stretch on a shot by Trevor Story off Charlie Morton … other than that the pitchers were in control, with Phillies ace Aaron Nola tossing a scoreless 5th … Bryce Harper struck out in both of his plate appearances

Game notes (innings 8-10) – in the top of the 8th with 2 on and 1 out, Joey Votto dropped a pop fly for an error (drawing boos and sarcastic cheers for the rest of the game), and Jean Segura made him pay by homering on the next pitch for a 5-2 AL lead … Christian Yelich got one back in the bottom of the inning with a HR off Morton … in the bottom of the 9th, pinch-hitter Scooter Gennett electrified the crowd with a one-out, two-run homer of AL saves leader Edwin Diaz to tie the game at 5 … the hometown good feelings wouldn’t last long, as the visitors scored 3 in the top of the 10th, starting with back-to-back longballs by Houston teammates Alex Bregman and George Springer off Ross Stripling … Votto only partially atoned for his earlier miscue by homering on the first pitch from J.A. Happ, who nevertheless earned the first save of his career
 
Other – there was a big storm earlier in the day, but only a brief, relatively light rain during the game … we were able to get going quickly on the Green Line after the game (which ended just before midnight), and a Red Line train was just arriving when we got to Gallery Place, but we then had a lengthy wait there waiting for a problem ahead of us to be cleared up

 
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