Saturday, September 23, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
September 17, 2017 – Nats 7, Dodgers 1 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 29,155
Game Time: 3:22
Weather: 78 degrees, clear
Wind: 4 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Hunter Wendelstedt, First Base - Adrian Johnson,
Second Base - Gabe Morales, Third Base - Gary Cederstrom
Notes – ESPN Sunday night game, so first for us in a while to start
well after sundown … Strasburg finally gave up a run in the top of the 2nd,
ending his 35-inning streak of scoreless innings, but otherwise blanked the
Dodgers through 6, despite allowing 3 stolen bases … he also contributed at the
plate, running up Hyun-Jin Ryu’s pitch count with 2 outs in the 5th
with a 9-pitch at-bat ending in a walk, forcing LA manager Dave Roberts to lift
his starter after he then walked Trea Turner … Nats offense, quiet while losing
4 out of 5 games since last Sunday’s clincher, finally woke up the next inning,
when Zim hit a 3-run homer after a Rendon walk and a Murphy single … added one
insurance run in the 7th, and 3 more the next inning on a solo HR by
Zim and a 2-run shot by Adam Lind, who set the Nats career record for pinch-hit
homers with his 4th
Friday, September 15, 2017
How Silicon Valley is erasing your individuality
Why some of us refuse to get Facebook accounts or Amazon Echo devices …
"Facebook has nurtured two hive minds, each residing in an
informational ecosystem that yields head-nodding agreement and penalizes
dissenting views. This is the phenomenon that the entrepreneur and author Eli
Pariser famously termed the “Filter Bubble” — how Facebook mines our data to
keep giving us the news and information we crave, creating a feedback loop that
pushes us deeper and deeper into our own amen corners." https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-silicon-valley-is-erasing-your-individuality/2017/09/08/a100010a-937c-11e7-aace-04b862b2b3f3_story.html?utm_term=.0400e12e33ea
September 10, 2017 – Nats 3, Phillies 2 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 32,627
Game Time: 2:16
Weather: 69 degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 5 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Sean Barber, First Base - Tripp Gibson, Second
Base - Jeff Kellogg, Third Base - Will Little
Nationals notes – Stephen Strasburg extended his scoreless streak to 34
innings, allowing only 3 baserunners through 8 innings, none of whom reached
second … offense broke through in the sixth, on a leadoff triple by Turner and
doubles by Adrian Sanchez and Victor Robles … Turner homered in the eighth for
the final run
Phillies notes – Maikel Franco’s singles in the fifth and eighth were
the only hits off Strasburg … Ben Lively pitched the entire game, matching
goose eggs with Strasburg through the first 5 … Phils rallied for 2 runs in the
ninth off Ryan Madson, on singles by Crawford, Herrera, and Nick Williams
Other – shortest game of the year in Nats Park brought the team to the
brink of clinching the NL East, pending the outcome of Miami’s game in Atlanta,
which was tied 5-5 as the Nats completed their victory … Marlins took the lead
on Dee Gordon’s second HR of the year and later added 2 more, but the Braves
rallied for 3 in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extra
innings … finally, almost 90 minutes after the game ended in Washington, Lane
Adams hit a 2-run walkoff homer for Atlanta in the bottom of the 11th
to clinch the division for the Nats … we were among the hundreds of fans who
stayed around to watch the Miami-Atlanta game on the big video screen and join
in the celebration
September 9, 2017 – Phillies 5, Nats 4 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 35,694
Game Time: 3:23
Weather: 69 degrees, clear
Wind: 6 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Will Little, First Base - Sean Barber, Second
Base - Tripp Gibson, Third Base - Jeff Kellogg
Nationals notes – Edwin Jackson struggled, giving up two solo homers in
the second, then allowing three singles and two walks in the fourth while
recording only one out before being lifted … after coming in and retiring Nick
Williams for the second out, Solis walked Rhys Hoskins with the bases loaded to
force in the fifth and final run for the visitors … Nats cut their 5-1 deficit
to 5-4 on Michael A. Taylor’s 2-run HR in the fourth and RBI single in the
sixth
Phillies notes – Hoskins and Maikel Franco answered Howie Kendrick’s
first-inning homer for the Nats with solo shots of their own in the top of the
second … Mark Leiter Jr. pitched well enough to get the win, allowing 4 runs in
6 innings … bullpen kept the Nats off the board for the final 3 innings, with
Garcia fanning Murphy, Zimmerman, and Rendon in a 1-2-3 eighth
Other – sunny but not especially warm day, which got quite chilly as
the evening progressed … went to the Season Plan Holder Appreciation Party at
the park Saturday afternoon, a well-organized event featuring
question-and-answer sessions (general and kids-only), games, autograph
stations, and free snacks
Monday, September 4, 2017
Walter Becker
Phrases from Bruce Springsteen’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame blurb: “a
voice of underdogs and the working class” … “deeply romantic and sentimental” …
“His music has enormously appealing qualities—sincerity, earnestness, optimism,
realism”
Phrases from Steely Dan’s blurb: “wry, nuanced and hyper-literate” … “desiccating
wit” … “cutting, urbane and often black-humored lyrics”
One made his name touring with a band whose members would later be
inducted into the R&R HOF on their own. The other gave up touring a few years into their career, relying on an dazzling array of guest
studio musicians for their recordings.
What they had in common: no acts spent more time on my turntable when they hit the musical scene during
the early 1970s.
Favorite songs:
Reeling In The Years
Deacon Blues
FM
Do It Again
King Of The World
Don’t Take Me Alive
Dirty Work
Hey Nineteen
Bad Sneakers
Show Biz Kids
Here At The Western World
Only A Fool Would Say That
Kid Charlemagne
Josie
True fans can amuse themselves by matching each song above to its opening
(answers at https://www.steelydan.com/lyrics.html)
“A world become one of salads and sun”
“Agents of the law, luckless pedestrian”
“Down at the Lido they welcome you with sausage and beer”
“Five names that I can hardly stand to hear”
“Hello one and all -- was it you I used to know”
“I remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes when you put me on the
Wolverine up to Annandale”
“In the morning you go gunnin' for the man who stole your water”
“This is the day of the expanding man”
“Times are hard, you're afraid to pay the fee”
“Way back when In sixty-seven, I was the dandy of Gamma Chi”
“We're gonna break out the hats and hooters”
“While the music played you worked by candlelight”
“While the poor people sleepin' with the shade on the light”
“Worry the bottle Mamma, it's grapefruit wine”
“Your everlasting summer you can see it fading fast”
Thursday, August 31, 2017
August 29, 2017 – Nats 8, Marlins 3 – Nationals Park
Attendance: 25,924
Game Time: 3:11
Weather: 66 degrees, rain
Wind: 14 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Greg Gibson, First Base - Sam Holbrook, Second
Base - D.J. Reyburn, Third Base - Jim Wolf
Seventh-inning stretch song: Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
Game notes – Edwin Jackson had a tough and lengthy first inning, giving
up a long tater to Giancarlo Stanton and subsequently walking the bases loaded …
managed to escape that jam and only gave up one more run through the 6th
… Nats finally got to nemesis Vance Worley (who had beaten them twice earlier
in the month while allowing only one run), scoring in the 3rd, 4th,
and 5th to take a 5-2 lead into the 7th … biggest blow in
the rally was a clutch two-out, two-run single by Murph in the bottom of the 3rd
… Jackson lasted 4 batters into the 7th, leaving with one run in and
the bases loaded, but Perez and Albers combined to retire Yelich, Ozuna, and
Realmuto without allowing any further damage … Nats took full advantage of
their similar opportunity in the bottom of the inning on a 2-out, 3-run double
by Rendon
Other – it was raining both when we got on Metro (around 4:00) and when
we arrived several minutes before the gates opened just after 5 … the new
Skittles tarp was on, and it kept raining while we waited for a seat at the
facility formerly known as the Red Porch Restaurant, as well as when we were
dining … they announced a delayed start (7:30) while we were eating, and it had
pretty much stopped raining when we went back outside shortly before 7 … did
get some light-to-moderate rain in the first inning, but nothing after that …
actual attendance was significantly under the number of tickets sold, given the
weather, so plenty of Harper Starting Lineup Action Figures remain available
Monday, August 28, 2017
Serendipity #71
Save It For A Rainy Day – The Jayhawks
Heard 8/28/2017 around 11:35 at Cava Grill (Montgomery Mall)
August 27, 2017 – Mets 6, Nats 5 (Game 1 of split double-header) – Nationals Park
Attendance: 31,904
Game Time: 3:34
Weather: 75 degrees, partly cloudy
Wind: 6 mph
Umpires: Home Plate - Andy Fletcher, First Base - Ramon DeJesus, Second
Base - Nic Lentz, Third Base - Bill Welke
Seventh-inning stretch song: The
Twist – Chubby Checker
Game notes – Nats fell into an early hole when emergency starter Erick
Fedde yielded an infield single, hit batter and 3-run homer (by Asdrubal
Cabrera) before retiring a batter in the first … a 2-run shot by Wilmer Flores
made it 5-0 in the third … Nats fought back in the middle innings and finally
tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, but Amed Rosario homered off Joe
Blanton in the 8th for what turned out to be the winning run … Nats
provided some excitement with two outs in the 9th, when Lind got a
pinch single and Murphy doubled, but pinch-runner Edwin Jackson was thrown out
at the plate to end the game … Fedde did manage to get through 6 innings for
Washington … Terry Collins managed like it was Game 7 of the World Series,
lifting starter Tommy Milone in the 5th after 82 pitches, then using
5 relievers to get through the 7th before turning to closer A.J.
Ramos for a 6-out save
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