April 1, 2024 – Pirates 8, Nats 4

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202404010.shtml

 

Time: 3:11

Attendance: 40,405 (sellout)

Seats: Section 313, Row E, Seats 12-13 (our usual section and row, but in the middle of the section rather than on the aisle)

 

Good news first – it did NOT rain, despite forecasts that were ominous a few days out. We did get rain earlier in the day, but not a drop once we arrived at the Navy Yard Metro station a bit before 3:00.

 

That doesn’t mean the weather was perfect. Although the sun peeked out a couple of times, the sky was mostly gray, and the temperature started at 53 degrees and never got much warmer. Given that, plus the wind, I wound up keeping my gloves on almost the entire afternoon.

 

I really didn’t expect a sellout for the home opener, but the crowd getting off Metro with us was astoundingly large, rivaling if not exceeding those for the team’s postseason contests several years back. (2024 marks the 5th anniversary of their World Series triumph, which is also the most recent year they made the playoffs.) Unsurprisingly, this also resulted in lengthy lines for the concession stands and restrooms. Having previous experiences with first-game concession issues, we brought our own subs in.

 

And then there was the game. Washington starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore was inconsistent from inning to inning, getting the Pirates 1-2-3 in the 3rd and 4th but allowing plenty of baserunners otherwise. He allowed two runs in the 2nd and was charged with another in the 6th after he left, when the leadoff batter scored on two unlucky swinging-bunt singles.

 

Meanwhile, the Nats managed to get only one run off soft-tossing lefty Marco Gonzales. They did tie the game at 3 in the bottom of the 7th on a mammoth two-run homer by Riley Adams, but the bullpen, with 3 relievers unavailable, gave up 3 runs in the top of the 8th and another pair in the 9th. The shortage of arms had Dave Martinez leaving Gore in for 101 pitches in his first start of the season, and forcing Tanner Rainey to throw 40 in the 9th before he finally recorded the third out.