Umpires:
HP: Joe West. 1B: Alan Porter. 2B: Marty Foster. 3B: Rob Drake.
Weather:
70 degrees, cloudy.
Wind: 15
mph, In from RF.
T: 2:39.
Att:
25,448.
Venue:
Nationals Park.
Following
Rafael Soriano’s most recent blown saves and at least temporary demotion from
the closer’s role for the Nats, Matt Williams has insisted that he will be
employing a “closer-by-committee” approach to finishing off close ballgames, at
least until Soriano is straightened out. After watching Drew Storen handle the
ninth inning the last two days, however, one has to wonder whether or not
Storen may be winning the role for good, regardless of a possible Soriano
resurgence.
Although
the Monday night crowd was not especially large, the game had a playoff
atmosphere throughout. The Nats struck quickly for a run in the top of the
first on singles by Rendon, LaRoche, and Desmond. The starting pitchers
dominated the game through the first six innings, with the Nats’ only other
threat being in the bottom of the third – Werth and LaRoche reached third base
and second base with two outs, but Desmond hit a foul fly to Jason Heyward in
right to end the inning. Doug Fister was even better for the Nats, not allowing
at Atlanta runner past first base in his first six innings.
Fister
faltered a bit in the seventh, walking Freddie Freeman to lead off the inning
and Tommy La Stella with two outs. This prompted a mound visit by manager Matt
Williams, who elected to leave Fister in to the delight of the crowd. The Nats
starter then finished off his seven innings of shutout ball by inducing a
grounder to short by Andrelton Simmons.
After the
stretch, the Nats added an important insurance run in the bottom of the frame,
as pinch-runner Jeff Kobernus scored from third on a Rendon grounder, after the
inning started with a Ramos single and an Asdrubal Cabrera double. This run
proved crucial when Tyler Clippard and Matt Thornton, the other two members of
the closer committee, combined to allow an Atlanta run in the top of the eighth
before Craig Stammen came in to prevent further damage. There was no such
suspense in the ninth, as Storen came in to strike out the side, given him 5 Ks
in six batters faced in his Sunday and Monday saves.
Section
135, Row R, seats 10-13 – lower level, down the right field line. Prime foul
ball territory; none came our way, but there was one in the section next to us.
The drive down was uneventful, but the traffic on the freeway and 14th-street
bridge on the way home was even slower than usual. We finally discovered that a
“milling and paving” project was underway that closed the right two lanes of
the bridge as we got close to Virginia, meaning that not only couldn’t we take
our usual ramp to the northbound GW Parkway, but we also couldn’t reach the
southbound Parkway or take the shortcut around the Pentagon parking lots. We
finally got off on Glebe Road and had a leisurely drive through Arlington,
finally reaching the Parkway near the Chain Bridge. (Of course, since it was a
start by the quick-working Fister, I still made it home slightly before
midnight.)
