September 22, 2023 – Braves 9, Nats 6

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202309220.shtml

 

Time: 3:01

Attendance: 36,297

 

As with our previous game, the weather was reasonably cooperative, as it didn’t start raining until the final few innings, by which time the home team’s fate was pretty much decided. (We took the opportunity to leave a little early.) Ronald Acuña led off the game and made history by hitting his 40th homer of the year to go with his 60+ stolen bases. Two batters later, the Braves led 3-0 when Austin Riley hit the second homer of the inning off Nats starter Patrick Corbin. The visitors extended their lead in the top of the third when Acuña doubled and scored on two fly balls.

 

Atlanta starter Charlie Morton left after the first inning with a finger injury, and Washington did fight back against the Braves’ bullpen, with one run in the third and two in the fourth. After the two 4th-inning runs, Darius Vines walked the bases loaded, but Dominic Smith struck out to end the frame.

 

Unfortunately, the Nats gave those two runs right back. With one on and one out, Dave Martinez lifted Corbin after just 68 pitches, apparently not wanting Acuña to have another crack at him. The move backfired, as reliever Jordan Weems hit Acuña with a pitch and then allowed both runners to score. And when Washington cut the margin to 6-4 in the bottom of the 6th, Marcell Ozuna immediately answered with a backbreaking 3-run HR.

 

What made our attendance worthwhile was the salute to beloved former Nats reliever Sean Doolittle, one of the heroes of their 2019 championship run, who announced his retirement earlier in the day. He rode the cart in from the bullpen one last time prior to the game and took the mound to deliver a strike to fellow Washington favorite Gerardo (“Baby Shark”) Parra. As a final tribute, Weems became one of the few other pitchers to take the cart when he came into the game.

 

Somewhat surprisingly, there were still some Keibert Ruiz bobbleheads left when I arrived at 6:35, despite the large crowd.

September 10, 2023 – Dodgers 7, Nats 3

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202309100.shtml

 

Time: 3:06

Attendance: 27,546

 

The good news for the day was that the weather wasn’t as bad as it might have been. While Friday’s game had a late-inning rain delay of 1:34 and Saturday’s “afternoon” game (scheduled 4:05 start) began 4:10 late and went into extra innings to boot, today’s mid-game delay lasted a mere 58 minutes.

 

There was very little good news baseball-wise. Struggling Nats starting pitcher (almost a redundant phrase) Trevor Williams gave up two runs in the top of the first inning, meaning that the home team started from behind in every game of this just-completed 9-game home stand. Things only went downhill from there, as the Dodgers scored twice more in the top of the second. The Nats did show some signs of life in the bottom of the fourth, when they loaded the bases on three singles and rookie catcher Drew Millas plated two of them with another hit.

 

The rain started shortly thereafter. Williams proceeded to load the bases with one out in the top of the fifth, on two walks sandwiched around a single. By that point, Williams was over 100 pitches and Davey had seen enough, bringing in Mason Thompson as the rain got harder. Shortly after Thompson allowed another base hit, it was pouring, and the umpires stopped the game. We waited things out at one of the picnic tables, under cover. When the action resumed, Thompson allowed another inherited runner to score on a sacrifice fly.

 

Former Nationals reliever Wander Suero, just called back up from Oklahoma City, came in to pitch for LA in the bottom of the fifth, and wound up being the winning pitcher, since Dodgers opener Ryan Yarbrough didn’t return after the rain and therefore didn’t pitch the necessary five inning to get credit for the win himself. At that point, three hours after the game started, we decided to call it a day, at least in part because the forecasts called for even more rain in the next hour or two. (It turns out they were wrong.)

 

Nationals reliever Joe La Sorsa, who’s spend the season bouncing back and forth between the majors and various minor league stops, does deserve credit for coming in after Thompson and dialing up 3.2 scoreless innings, saving considerable wear and tear on the rest of Washington’s overworked bullpen.

 

Metro was uneventful in both directions. We picked up subs again, and arrived early enough at the park for one of us (not me) to participate in Signature Sunday.

August 13, 2023 – Nats 8, A’s 7

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202308130.shtml

 

Time: 3:09

Attendance: 19,240

 

For Jeter Downs, once a highly-regarded prospect, 2023 hasn’t exactly been a banner season, divided into brief periods with the Nationals during which he seldom left the bench, and an extended stay in AAA, during which he registered a sickly batting average of .175.

 

Things changed for at least one day Sunday, when he both started (by leading off with a 6-pitch walk) and ended (with a walk-off single over the infield) the home team’s improbable 6-run 9th-inning rally to complete a weekend sweep of the (admittedly pathetic) Oakland Athletics.

 

The rally validated two well-known baseball sayings:

1.      “Keep the line moving” – as outs were precious, everyone played it safe and advanced one base at a time, except when pinch-runner Blake Rutherford scored the tying run from second base on an error by the Oakland shortstop.

2.      “Take what they give you” – in this case, 3 walks and a passed ball, in addition to the error.

 

Prior to that, not a lot had gone right for the home team. Starting pitcher Trevor Williams dug a 3-run hole for his teammates in the top of the first and wound up not making it through the 5th, taking the MLB lead in homers allowed in the process. Relievers Robert Garcia and Andrés Machado conspired to allow the final two Oakland runs in the 7th. Meanwhile, the Washington offense managed just two tallies, while stranding numerous runners in scoring position.

 

The Red Line down was less crowded than for Saturday night’s bobblehead giveaway game*, but it was noticeably slower than usual due to weekend single-tracking. I still arrived in plenty of time to have a leisurely lunch at Chopt. I can’t speak for Metro on the way back, since a couple of friends graciously offered me a ride back to Shady Grove.

 

* - I also attended the Saturday night game, but left as planned after about two hours to get a good night’s sleep prior to the Sunday afternoon game. For the record, Keibert Ruiz hit the first pitch of the bottom of the 9th out of the park to give the Nats a 3-2 win.