12 Runs on 14 hits…seriously.The Nats were looking strong tonight at Great American!When I turned on the game, I was shocked to see that the score was 9-1. It quickly became 9-5 in the 7th as Rivera walked in some runs, King got ejected, and Abreu finished that long inning up. But Church helped to put 3 more runs on the board.Photo Credit: AP Photo/Al BehrmanThroughout the night, Schneiderman had a double and a home-run. Church had 2 home-runs and a double, along with 6 RBIs. Dmitri had a double, Guzman a triple. Zimmerman also had a home-run. Excellent offensive production for our Nats tonight!

Day in and day out, we post about specific baseball games or our experiences involving the Nationals. We try to be optimistic. It can be tough sometimes, but we’re grateful to have a team here in DC and we believe in these very talented guys. We love Manny Acta. We buy “the plan.” You have to start somewhere.As such, it was a delight to read Nats320’s essay today. Titled “I understand,” Nats320 describes all of the tough things Nats fans have had to experience through the past few years.

Everyone wants to see a winner. Everyone wants to be emotionally attached to THEIR TEAM. That’s harder to do when your team is struggling.

After describing all of these problems, he concludes by suggesting that we all enjoy what we’ve got - a hometown team. Enough tearing the plan, the players, the coaches, the announcers and the executives to pieces.We, The Three Girls with Heart, couldn’t agree more. Fans matter; hope matters; heart matters — it’s why wins feel so good.

Wow! What a game…it was great being in the ballpark when a moment like Felipe’s grand slam happens. It would have been much better if I had been in DC where there would have been loud cheering and celebration, but I still got some sort of sick pleasure watching the Reds fans file out after Felipe’s Slam.

Just to show the amount of home run success Felipe Lopez has had in Great American compared to every other field in baseball, I looked at this stat. For his career Felipe has hit a home run in every 31.8 Plate Appearances in Cincy vs. every 50.8 Plate Appearences elsewhere and that was before the bomb he hit last night. Here is my picture of Felipe trotting home, unfortunately I couldnt get a picture of all the Reds fans filing out or when we moved to 4 rows behind the Nats dugout because my camera ran out of batteries

Other highlights of the night were Matt Chico with another great outing (minus 2 pitches). Also, it was a historic night as Ken Griffey Jr. (who recently became my favorite non-Nats player) just tied Harmon Kilebrew for 8th alltime with 573 home runs! Congrats to Griffey! Somebody who has played the game the right way since he began his career and barring his unfortunate injuries over the last 5 years or so, someone that we might be cheering for to reach 700 or even break Aaron’s record.

Anyway, I know this blog is supposed to stay positive so I will simply post a picture of the silly error of the night that got me pretty upset, anybody that watched the game knows what I am talking about.

Overall though another great game (well worth the $5 bleacher prices!) and the Nats scoring 8 runs on the night was a season high. Looooving the offense, keep it up boys!

Anything is possible in that park. Ahead by 6, behind by 2 - apparantly, you can never predict what will happen in late innings at that ballpark.This will just be a quick post because I believe our guest blogger from yesterday may have attended last night’s game; he might have more to say or pictures to share.The night belonged to Felipe Lopez — who drove in 6 RBIs on a grand slam and 2 doubles.Chico gave up four runs on only three hits. He almost made it to the 6th inning before being replaced by Ray King and Jesus Colome.Zimmerman’s glove also sparkled all night with several amazing plays. Heck, even FickNasty had a big hit.We couldn’t make it out to the ESPN Zone to watch the game with the Nat Pack, but we hope the event turned out well. Bob Carpenter believed the party at the ESPN Zone was partly responsible for that 8th inning rally, so way to go!

We are loving this article about MASN hosts Johnny Holliday and Ray Knight. Just a few days ago, we met Johnny and Ray. Times writer Dick Heller captures the same camraderie we noticed last Saturday night. The duo could not have been more genuine. Heller also explains Holliday’s crazy schedule (which he also told us all about after Saturday’s game.) Make sure you stop by their tent near Parking Lot 8 after weekend home games to watch the taping of Nats Xtra and meet your favorite (friendly and talkative) Nats announcers!

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!

What a way to close a weekend in baseball. The girls and I finished this home stretch with an 8-10 attendance record, not too shabby! It was a great day for a baseball game. We have been pretty lucky in Washington, the weather these past few Sunday home games has been beautiful. We headed to the ballpark early with a sign for Austin Kearns’ birthday. We went down to our usual place for autographs, and were rewarded with signatures from Mike Bacsik and Ronnie Belliard. Having been through the autograph process a few times, we were unpleasantly surprised to be yelled at by an RFK usher for not leaving the section fast enough. Nonetheless, we are usually extremely happy with RFK’s customer service, and hope that today’s incident is the last of its kind.

Our day took a positive turn when we ran into NatsPower on the way to our seats. He had his new customized jersey on and looked like a professional Nats fan, it was pretty cool. We were also happy that Micah Bowie got his first major league start since 1999. Our bullpen has really stepped up to the mound since most of our starters are on the DL. Micah did a great job in his 3 ½ innings and left the game when reliever Billy Traber came in. Early in the game, Nook Logan had a fantastic bunt and proceeded to steal two bases in a row. What a cool thing to see, he made it to second, stood up, dusted off, and then stole third on the next pitch!

Lopez hit him home for the fist run of the game. Ryan Zimmerman was on today also, hitting two doubles at key moments, and having some great defensive plays.

While the O’s led most of the game, we never lost our heart and predicted a rally starting in the 8th inning. The girls and I had our rally caps on, and hoped that the power of three would help the Nats pull out a win. In the beginning of the 8th inning, Ryan Zimmerman hit a double, and Langerhans singled to right to drive him home. After the O’s walked a couple of batters, the bases were loaded with two outs. Nook Logan had a fantastic at bat. After a number of pitches, Nook singled to right to send Kearns and Belliard home and the Nats took the lead. Chad Cordero entered the game and pitched wonderfully; we are so glad to have him back and in great shape. He picked up his 5th save of the season and the Nats won 4-3!

The 3 girls would like to extend their congratulations and best wishes to the Orioles couple from section 446 who got engaged just after the 7th inning stretch. How exciting and best of luck!

The Three Girls with Heart were able to get to the game early today. Shawn Hill and Jesus Colome signed autographs, but Colome, whether due to a smudge or his own sense of humor, signed over Kory Casto’s name on Steph’s ball.We started off with an early lead thanks to Nook’s double, but it was followed by a long game. The O’s didn’t score until the 8th inning, surprisingly off of Jon Rauch. Of course, it was great to see Chief back in action and on fire.Extra innings were fun until Payton’s double in the 11th when the O’s took the lead 3-1.Batista and Kearns were able to pull in one more run, but the Nats fell to Baltimore again tonight.Despite the loss, we have to be excited about a great start for Mike Bacsik. He gave up only 5 hits and no runs - a fabulous start, given our incredibly injured starting rotation.Last but certainly not least - in fact perhaps a highlight of our evening — we were able to watch the Nats Extra Post-game show live outside RFK.Johnny Holliday and Ray Knight were so happy to have an audience! Ray instantly spotted us and checked to make sure we were Nats fans. They then suggested that we sit in with them for the broadcast. After the show wrapped up, we had a wonderful conversation with both these friendly broadcasters. Johnny told us all about his career, the MASN studio and his crazy day-to-day schedule. They also informed us that they will be filming live from every home weekend game from now on. Of course, they were also thrilled to pose for a photo with their “three lovely ladies.”

Yea, so it wasn’t fun to lose to our northern neighbors last night. Maybe they needed a win more than we did (after last Sunday’s performance at Fenway). O’s fans in our section celebrated like they just destroyed (it was only 5-4) a team with a stellar record (Nationals 15-27).Dmitri Young (must have been the lucky flip-flops) and Ryan Zimmerman each had home-runs and Simontacci and the relievers did a nice job. We just came up short, with a few key mistakes. And as much as we love Ronnie, we would have preferred Flores’ bat in those final moments.Anyway, we’ll get them today.(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)