Shuffle #120 (October 19, 2019)

We Let The Stars Go – Prefab Sprout

I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – Otis Redding

Right Here (Departed) – Brandy

Pictures Of Lily – The Who

Lollipop – The Chordettes

Nashville Cats – The Lovin’ Spoonful

Behind The Wall Of Sleep – The Smithereens

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You – The Monkees

Midnite Cruiser – Steely Dan

Run Joe – Louis Jordan

Wide River To Cross – Diana Krall

Elizabeth Warren and her recent gay-marriage “zinger”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/warren-had-a-good-zinger-on-gay-marriage-it-was-bad-politics/2019/10/15/6736ea1a-ef50-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html

 

Another great column from the Post’s Ruth Marcus. A couple of key passages:

 

“[Her response] reflects an attitude of intolerance and disrespect toward people of faith. Those who reasonably expect tolerance and respect should think about — well, they should think about the importance of practicing what they preach.”

 

“Most immediately, this dismissive attitude is politically dangerous. In the short term, Warren’s seeming intolerance toward those whose faith rejects same-sex marriage could hurt her with African American voters. In the general election, her comments carried unsettling echoes of Democratic missteps past: Barack Obama on dispirited working-class voters who “cling to guns or religion”; Hillary Clinton lumping Trump supporters into a “basket of deplorables.” Intolerant condescension is rarely a winning political strategy.”

October 15, 2019 – Nats 7, Cards 4 (NLCS Game 4) – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/nationals-win-2019-national-league-pennant

 

Weather: 64 degrees, Clear.

Wind: 5 mph, Out To LF.

Umpires: HP--Cuzzi, 1B--Fairchild, 2B--Culbreth, 3B--Guccione, LF--Conroy, RF--Miller.

Time: 3:02

Attendance: 43,976

 

Sweep dreams! The Nationals win the pennant! The Nationals win the pennant!! The Nationals win the pennant!!!

 

Tuesday night’s triumph can best be seen as a two-act play, with three major scenes.

 

Act One, which consisted of a single scene (the first inning), couldn’t have gone any better for the Nats. Starter Patrick Corbin struck out the side, on his way to becoming the first postseason pitcher to record at least 10 Ks by the end of the 4^th. The home team then proceeded to quickly ambush the ill-fated St. Louis starting pitcher, Dakota Hudson:

 

Pitch #3 – Turner single

Pitch #4 – Eaton double

Pitch #5 – Rendon sac fly, scoring Turner

Pitch #7 – Soto double, scoring Eaton

Intentional walk to Kendrick

Pitch #9 – Ground ball by Zimmerman, with second baseman Kolten Wong dropping the throw to load the bases

Pitch #14 – Catchable pop by Robles that was chased by three Cardinals and dropped in front of the defensively-challenged Jose Martinez, scoring run #3 and leaving the bases loaded

Pitch #15 – Two-run single by Robles for a 5-0 lead

 

Exit Hudson (stage left). Enter long-time St. Lous stalwart Adam Wainwright, who had played the lead role of starting pitcher the previous Saturday. Corbin laid down a sacrifice on Wainwright’s second pitch, sending the runners to second and third, and Turner singled them both home on the next offering.

 

The second act of the evening, which ran much longer, began immediately thereafter, following only a brief intermission. Would our home-team heroes be able to extend their lead, or would they let it dwindle?

 

The cast of characters in blue, so dominant in Act One, might as well have turned their bats into wet noodles for the remainder of the affair. Only four of them got on base against the St. Louis bullpen, with none advancing past first.

 

Meanwhile, Corbin dominated the Cardinals for the next three innings, although he did give up a seemingly-harmless homer to Yadier Molina in the 4^th. This led to the night’s second major scene, the top of the 5^th inning.

 

Corbin suddenly had trouble finding home plate, walking two batters with a Kolten Wong single in between. A soft grounder allowed the Cards to score their second run, and a ringing Martinez double produced two more. All of a sudden the score was 7-4, with an air of apprehension filling the sold-out audience. Nats manager Davey Martinez surprised many of us by keeping Corbin in the game, and he rallied to fan his final two batters.

 

Things calmed down for a bit, with Tanner Rainey retiring the visitors in order in the 6^th and a well-rested Sean Doolittle repeating the feat an inning later. This led to the climax of the affair.

 

Doolittle retired the first two St. Louis batters in the top of the 8^th, then gave up a single to Marcell Ozuna. The equally well-rested Daniel Hudson (no relation to Dakota) entered to (hopefully) close things out; he proceeded to hit Molina with his fourth pitch, then walk Paul DeJong to load the bases. St. Louis then played one of their high cards, bringing in dangerous left-handed power hitter Matt Carpenter to face the right-handed Hudson. A single would cut the lead to one, a round-tripper would actually put the visitors ahead. As the script unfolded, however, Carpenter hit a harmless ground ball for the final out of the inning, and 40,000 of us resumed breathing.

 

The final inning seemed preordained. Hudson retired the side in order, giving the Nats their first-ever NL pennant. The stagehands and actors took their bows, and everyone lived happily ever after (or at least until the World Series).

 

October 14, 2019 – Nats 8, Cards 1 (NLCS Game 3) – Nationals Park

https://www.mlb.com/nationals/news/stephen-strasburg-nlcs-game-3-performance

 

Weather: 71 degrees, Clear.

Wind: 3 mph, L To R.

Umpires: HP--Miller, 1B--Cuzzi, 2B--Fairchild, 3B--Culbreth, LF--Guccione, RF--Conroy.

Time: 3:26

Attendance: 43,675

 

The action last night deviated quickly from the script of the previous two games, in that one of the Cardinals actually had the temerity to get a hit before the seventh-inning stretch. Fortunately for the Nats, Marcell Ozuna (who has always hit Strasburg well) followed his leadoff double in the second by getting caught between second and third on Jose Martinez’s comebacker to the mound, extinguishing the rally before it had a chance to get going.

 

An inning later, again referring to the previous two games, I commented that the Nats were about due to score their one early run. This would indeed come true, as Robles led off with a single, went to second on the first of two Strasburg sacrifice bunts, and scored on a two-out Eaton single after St. Louis ace Jack Flaherty fanned Turner. Turned out that I had underestimated our team, as Rendon then lined a double to left that Ozuna just missed catching, scoring Eaton. Following a walk to Soto and a wild pitch, Kendrick came through again, doubling to center to double the Washington lead.

 

Strasburg continued to deal for the next 3 innings, allowing a couple of harmless singles. In fact, he seemed to be getting stronger, finishing off a 10-pitch 6^th by fanning Paul Goldschmidt (who wound up going down on strikes in each of his 4 plate appearances) and Ozuna. Meanwhile, Washington feasted on the St. Louis bullpen after Jack was forced to hit the road, lifted for a pinch-hitter in the top of the 5^th. Doubles by Kendrick and Zim following a Rendon single plated two more in the bottom of the frame, and Robles led off the 6^th with a homer to increase the lead to 7-0.

 

Things did get a little tense in the top of the 7^th. Martinez, a thorn in Washington’s side the entire series, extended Stras’s pitch count from 90 to 100 before singling to left, and Yadier Molina got another hit on the very next pitch. With Tanner Rainey up in the bullpen, Strasburg fanned Tommy Edman, but Paul DeJong hit another single in Soto’s direction, with Martinez scoring an unearned run after Juan slipped while getting ready to throw the ball back in. During the subsequent mound visit, Stephen made clear that he intended to finish the inning, and he did so in style, fanning former Nat Matt Wieters and Dexter Fowler on a total of 8 pitches.

 

Things calmed down from there. The Nats got the run back after the stretch on Kendrick’s third double of the game followed by Zim’s single. Fernando Rodney and Rainey retired the final 6 St. Louis batters, leaving the Nats one win away from the World Series. (And we are now 2-1 this postseason when eating at Nando’s before the game.)