Time: 3:01
Attendance: 23,158
We won!!!
Start with the pitching. Erick Fedde
became the first Washington starter to complete 5 innings, holding the Mets to
a pair of runs in the 4th. The Nats’ four
top relievers (Steve Cishek, Sean Doolittle, Kyle Finnegan, and Tanner Rainey)
combined to blank the visitors over the final 4 frames.
After getting off to a relatively fast start with a Nelson Cruz
homer and a Josh Bell single in the bottom of the first, the home team offense
reverted to its early-season futility, failing to get a single hit in the
following 6 innings off Carlos Carrasco and Chasen
Shreve. Things finally changed in the 8th, when the Nats placed runners on the corners with no outs on singles
by Yadiel Hernandez and Maikel Franco. Shortstop
Lucius Fox, making his major-league debut, then brought the crowd to its feet
with a perfect bunt that plated the tying run. Two outs later, Cruz singled up
the middle to score Fox and César Hernández.
The weather wasn’t the greatest – no rain, but low 50s temps
and a strong wind that led me to keep my gloves on for most of the afternoon. (This
may have led to some ticketholders staying away altogether, as the number of people
in the park seemed well short of 20,000.) Our experiences with Nats Park concessions were actually positive, probably
because we stayed away from online ordering. That was fortunate, given our
lunch debacle at a well-known (and heavily patronized) sports bar across the
street from the stadium. Suffice it to say we arrived around 11:30 and left
shortly after 1:00, without my sandwich order making an appearance.