June 9, 2024 – Nats 8, Braves 5

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202406090.shtml

 

Time: 2:38

Attendance: 34,282

Start Time Weather: 76° F, Wind 14mph from Left to Right, Cloudy, No Precipitation.

 

It’s not every day that a pitcher making his major-league debut faces an opponent who has only one previous MLB start to his credit, but that’s what happened at Nats Park on Sunday. Atlanta’s Hurston Waldrep, their 2023 first-round draft pick who was just called up from the minors, had the early advantage over Washington’s DJ Herz, whose only previous start in the majors had come five days earlier. Waldrep was in total command for the first three innings, facing the minimum nine batters as the Nats swung early and often but unsuccessfully. The two runners who reached base, on a walk and an error, were quickly erased on a caught-stealing and a double play, respectively.

 

Herz had a quick top of the 1st, but struggled in the 2nd, coughing up two singles, two walks, and a pair of wild pitches to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. By the end of the 3rd, he had thrown more than twice as many pitches as his Atlanta counterpart.

 

Waldrep’s dominance would vanish an inning later. With two outs, Luis García Jr. singled Lane Thomas in from third, and Keibert Ruiz hit a 3-run dinger on the next pitch for a 4-2 Nats lead. Washington than reloaded the bases (walk-single-walk), prompting the Braves to bring in lefty specialist Aaron Bummer (insert joke here) to face CJ Abrams. The Washington shortstop quickly foiled the strategy by pulling Bummer’s first offering down the right field line to clear the bases. Thomas followed by going down on strikes, but the damage was done.

 

The Nats plated another run in the 5th for an 8-2 lead, after which both offenses took a few innings off. Jacob Weems made things interesting in the top of the 9th by serving up a 3-run homer to Jarred Kelenic, which did give Kyle Finnegan the opportunity to notch his 18th save of the season. (Jacob Barnes, who relieved Herz with one out in the 5th, was credited with the win.)

 

Much to my surprise (at least), the Nats announced around 1:00 that the start of the game would be delayed due to expected inclement weather, although my usual source of weather info indicated a mere 7% chance of precipitation when I checked around 9:30. They did in fact put the tarp on a bit later, and we experienced maybe 10-15 minutes of rain, much of which the strong wind blew across the upper concourse. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, and the game got underway at 2:10.

 

Gladys Knight / Patti LaBelle – Wolf Trap, 6/8/2024

Row R, Seat 2 – right section, on the right-center aisle

 

These two living legends of soul – each of whom celebrated her 80th birthday recently –  both put on great shows, each in her own way.

 

There was nothing fancy about Knight’s performance. Wearing orange (possibly to honor the victims of gun violence?), she was supported by three “Pips” (all female) and a six-piece band (guitar, bass, and two percussionists and keyboard players). She proceeded to do 14 songs, mixing hits such as “Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me” with lesser-known cuts such as “Make Yours A Happy Home” and the opening “Taste Of Bitter Love”. Near the end of the show, she featured somewhat reimagined arrangements of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (which I liked) and “Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)” (not as much). She finished up, just about an hour after getting underway, with her cover of Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were” and “Midnight Train To Georgia”, sandwiched around her version of gospel great Donnie McClurkin’s “Stand”. She didn’t seem to have lost any of her vocal chops, holding some notes for lengthy periods throughout despite not having any long solos to give her much of a break, and the backup singers and band more than held up their share of the show.

 

Unfortunately, by the scheduled 8:00 starting time, well under half of the non-lawn portion of the sellout crowd had found their seats inside the Filene Center. As a result, we were frequently distracted by latecomers being ushered to their seats, up to and including during the concluding “Midnight Train". As Knight didn’t tell any especially long stories between songs, it was difficult to do this gracefully. (To be charitable, I expect that anyone who arrived by car much later than 7:30 may have had trouble finding parking, and at best probably faced a lengthy walk to the venue.)

 

LaBelle certainly featured more in the way of showmanship, as she invited four men up on stage to dance and sing (sort of) with her on the penultimate “Lady Marmalade”. The set also made extensive use of lighting (often creative, occasionally annoying), and she deployed four backup singers, along with a band featuring a horn section. While Knight had several relatively brief band solos in her set, Labelle’s portion of the evening included two back-to-back numbers with multiple extended solos, the second of which provided a costume-change opportunity (white to pink, if you’re keeping track). As with Knight, I didn’t notice any signs of vocal decline; she was hitting (and holding) stratospherically high notes well before Mariah Carey was even born.

 

Aside from the duet on “On My Own”, which I thought was a bit of a mess, I enjoyed all of her material, although it’s not nearly as familiar to me as Knight’s body of work. The show was a nice mix of ballads – “If Only You Knew” is one of my favorites – and more up-tempo material. Their somewhat unlikely version of Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” actually worked, although I would have loved to have her include “New Attitude”. “Marmalade” of course was fun, with “Bad Girls” ending the hour-long set.

 

The 30-minute intermission between sets was enough for just about everyone to be seated when she started her set at 9:30, although a noticeable portion of the audience was heading back toward the parking lots during the final 10-15 minutes of her hour on stage.

 

Gladys Knight setlist

Patti LaBelle setlist