April 2, 2023 – Nats 4, Braves 1

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202304020.shtml

 

Time: 2:17

Attendance: 21,440

 

Our first of many Sunday afternoon games was an improvement over Opening Day in almost every respect – the game time temperature was a more pleasant 54 degrees, the wind wasn’t as bothersome, and the home team notched its first win of the season.

 

The Nats started fast, loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first on two singles and a walk. They kept the line moving with an RBI single by Dominic Smith, two run-scoring walks issued by Atlanta starter Jared Shuster, and a sac fly. That wound up being pretty much it for Washington’s offense. Shuster, who was making his major league debut, settled in and made it into the 5^th inning, and two Atlanta relievers held the Nats without a baserunner for the rest of the game.

 

Fortunately, Mackenzie Gore shined in his long-awaited Washington debut, fanning six while working around 3 hits and 4 walks to yield only a single run. Hunter Harvey took over with one out in the bottom of the 6^th with men on first and third and promptly induced an inning-ending double play, one of three the Nats infield turned during the afternoon. Ramirez, Edwards Jr., and Finnegan blanked the visitors to close things out.

 

We had lunch at the Greene Turtle before going in to the stadium, totally avoiding the Nats Park concessions. And the game was over in a tidy 2:17. (Just for the record, the Nats can also lose quickly, dropping the second game of the series 7-1 in just 2:21. Hooray for the pitch clock!)

 

Mark Russell

“A broken campaign promise to change the way Washington works is exactly the way Washington works.”

 

One of the great lines from the late political satirist and comic Mark Russell, who referred to himself as “a political cartoonist for the blind.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/03/30/mark-russell-satirist-pianist-dead/

 

March 30, 2023 – Braves 7, Nats 2

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202303300.shtml

 

Time: 3:07

Attendance: 35,756

 

This was far from the best-played game in baseball history – 5 errors total (3 by Nats shortstop CJ Abrams), and a number of other plays that should have been made but weren’t. Maybe it was Opening Day jitters, or the cold, windy weather (gametime temperature of 45, plus an 8mph wind that felt much stronger at times in the stands). At least it was sunny, and the new pitch-clock rules probably saved us from an extra 20-30 minutes of frozen-finger misery. The Nats’ marketing over the past couple weeks made it obvious that the opener wouldn’t sell out, and I suspect they were reasonably satisfied to break the 35K mark.

 

Neither starting pitcher made it to the 5^th inning. Atlanta’s Max Fried strained his left hamstring while covering first base, and Patrick Corbin was lifted one batter into the top of the 4^th. Corbin was not helped by his leaky defense, and several of the 7 hits against him weren’t hit all that hard, but too many of his 85 pitches missed the strike zone, including a bases-loaded walk he issued in the visitors’ 3-run 2^nd.

 

Washington’s offense had its chances but failed to capitalize on most of them, going 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Their first 3 relievers covered 5 innings following Corbin’s exit without being charged with a run, but Kyle Finnegan (with the help of Abrams’ final error) let the Braves add 3 runs to their 4-2 lead in the top of the 9^th, pretty much eliminating any prospect of a late home-team rally.

 

Our Metro trips were relatively uneventful, once the gates finally let me in at Shady Grove. Ballpark concessions were a mixed bag. The good news is both of us managed to get lunch in a reasonably timely fashion. My chicken arepa was both delicious and filling, although quite messy. The process to purchase it, however, was almost comically complicated. A number of stands weren’t able to operate their soda machines, many of the lines were quite long, and some places were obviously unable to keep the supply of food items up with the demand.