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 4, 2019

July 3, 2019 – Nats 3, Marlins 1 – Nationals Park


 
Weather: 90 degrees, Partly Cloudy.
Wind: 7 mph, In From LF.
Umpires: HP--Guccione, 1B--Carlson, 2B--Gibson, 3B--Segal.
Time: 3:07
Attendance: 25,483
First pitch: 6:05 PM
 
It was an interesting first inning for Stephen Strasburg Wednesday evening. The good news: he fanned the first two batters, and induced a harmless ground ball for the third out after walking Garrett Cooper. The bad news: he needed 20 pitches to get through the frame. On an oppressively hot and humid day, I remember thinking that he wasn’t destined to get very deep into the game.
 
Strasburg had other ideas. He continued to pile up strikeouts (13 through 7 innings, including an immaculate 9-pitch 4th where he struck out the side). During that time, he allowed only two baserunners, both harmless singles. No one even reached second base.
 
Meanwhile, the Nats struggled to get on the scoreboard against Miami starter Sandy Alcantara, the team’s lone All-Star representative. After wasting two-out doubles in the second and third, they loaded the bases with just one out in the fourth  on two walks and an error,  but Alcantara retired Robles and Gomes on strikes to extinguish the threat.
 
The home team finally broke through in the 6th, on a one-out single by Soto and a two-out homer by Dozier (which I more or less called). Dozier’s dinger also enabled the Nats to set a franchise record, with at least one home run in 17 straight games.
 
Stras still looked strong, ending the top of the 7th at 98 pitches, so Martinez let him hit in the bottom of the inning and come back out for the 8th. He promptly walked leadoff hitter JT Riddle and hit Bryan Holaday with a pitch. He exited one batter later to a standing ovation after fanning pinch-hitter Brian Anderson. Fernando Rodney allowed a single to Nats-killer Miguel Rojas to load the bases, but got a double-play grounder to end the inning and protect the shutout.
 
Matt Adams’ solo homer in the bottom of the inning provided some insurance, which felt good as Sean Doolittle navigated a rocky 9th inning. After retiring the first batter, he allowed three straight singles to load the bases. He struck out Riddle after falling behind 3-1, but then hit Cesar Puello to force in a run. We could finally exhale when he fanned Yadiel Rivera to nail down the save.
 
The early start and the lack of rain let the Nats proceed with their post-game “Freedom Fireworks” display. Somewhat oddly, the musical accompaniment began with “Time Of The Season” by the very-British Zombies. The remaining selections were certainly all-American, although I thought that CCRs “Bad Moon Rising” was an equally discordant choice to end a celebratory show. (Check out the lyrics if you don’t believe me.) Perhaps “Proud Mary”, or even “Born On The Bayou”, which actually mentions the Fourth of July?
 

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