Hi! I’m Doug and have the pleasure of guest bloggin for the three lovely ladies of “We’ve got Heart” that I met at a Nats game at Wrigley a couple weeks ago. I live near Cincy for now (moving to DC for good in the fall) and am a huge Nats fan, so when the Nats had a four game series against the Reds, I jumped at the oppurtunity to go to the game and blog about it.

Unfortunately, Game 1 didnt turn out as I had hoped, but on the brighter side we scored 7 runs and 3 home runs! Pretty good for a team that ranks dead last in runs scored and HR’s in all of Major League Baseball. Maybe the tide is turning on the struggling offense as Zimmerman is starting to heat up.

It was a wild first inning as Felipe Lopez hit a bloop single into the outfield and Dunn proceded to try to throw it to second in a bizarre flip while on his back that landed far away from the bag. I know Dunn isn’t in the lineup for his defense but this error was horrendous (the only semi-logical explanation of this would be that maybe the sun was in his eyes???)
Anyway, after this the floodgates opened, Guz walked Zimmerman doubled and Dmit doubled. I’ve barely had 2 sips of my beer and the Nats are up 3-0 against Bronson Arroyo!

Schneider would later single to center and after the first inning its 4-0 Nats, needless to say the Reds fans were not pleased, especially this man sitting in front of me who could barely even lift his head after Bronson gave up 4 in the first including a walk to Speigner (Many obsenities were heard and I don’t think he appreciated a Nats fan behind him screaming at the run production; I moved after the first inning). In the second the Nats added 2 more as Kearns hit a shot just over the left-center wall (Count: HR #1). After this I was in disbelief as I don’t recall the Nats ever having a 6 run lead this entire season and especially so early.

But, in the bottom of the second Hatteberg hit a 2 run shot (Count: HR #2) to close the gap to 6-2. The bottom of the third, Griff hits an absolute rocket out to deep right (Count: HR#3) and Gonzalez and Hatteberg hit doubles off Speigner to get within 1 at 6-5. After the inning, I knew we were in for a real offensive treat, which as a Nats fan doesn’t happen very often. So, I went up to the Skyline booth and got myself a Cheese Coney (for those unfamiliar with Cheese coneys they are a hot dog with chili and cheese on top). I sit down take a bite of my coney and the next thing I know Zimmerman hits a shot over the left-center wall (Count: HR #4). I drop the coney to get a picture of Ryan “The Franchise” Zimmerman trotting the bases.
Just to throw this stat out there, today was his 3rd multi-hit game in his last 6, and he is now the team leader in RBI, so it looks like he might be breaking out offensively just like he did last year. After this though, our Nats would only be able to get 2 more hits. Thankfully, Winston Abreu came in and pitched beautifully for 3 full innings and only gave up 1 hit! Awesome outing Winston, I didn’t know how he would do in the big leagues but he is really starting to prove himself. Rivera came in and shut down the seventh for us. When the 8th inning came around, I slyly commented to my Reds friends “Lock it up, Rauch and Cordero are gonna shut you guys down”

Despite my confidence in one of the finest set-up men in the game, Rauch started out giving up a single to Dunn and then confusion by Nook and Kearns off a Hatteburg (AGAIN!!!) shot to center-right went past them for a double. I’m not quite sure why this was ruled a hit rather than an error as from what I saw both Nook and Kearns could have gotten the ball but they were afraid to hit each other (maybe the Nick Johnson incident still fresh in Kearns’ mind?) and both kind of laid up at the last minute. Maybe the replay on TV showed something different but that is what i saw. Anyway, Valentin pinch hit and hit an absolute monster home run that nearly left the park(Count: HR #5) right inside the right field post. Weathers closed it out and the game was over. Reds 8 Nats 7.

Despite the 6 run lead that ended in a loss, all in all there were many positives.
A) I got to see a ton of offense including 15 total runs, 7 of which were by the Nats (they’ve only put up 7+ in 2 other games this season)
B) Abreu pitched his butt off for 3 innings and is looking like a legitimate big league reliever
C) Zimmerman is looking like he is about to heat up and
D) it was an amazing night for baseball at Great American Ballpark and there were some fun people in the stands

Let’s keep the offense coming and see if we can take these next three against the Reds!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.