Unfortunately, we couldn’t capitalize on this season’s early momentum this weekend in St. Louis. The Cardinals swept the Nats in the three game series. Perez and Chico got beat up by the St. Louis lineup, and John Lannan’s nice outing was sidelined by no offensive production. The Nats are now 3-4.
On Friday, Perez gave up 4 doubles (Barton, Pujols, Izturis and Ludwick) and a home run to Ankiel. When he left the game, the bullpen finally had a solid performance with Schroder, Hanrahan and Rivera finishing the game. Despite a 3 run rally in the 7th off of Cardinals reliever Russ Springer, the Nats failed to close the gap. Guzman’s solo shot provided hope, but Lopez’s bases loaded strike out really killed the momentum. Willie Harris hit a short ground ball to end the inning. It was one of 3 strike-outs for Lopez, who left 6 runners on base throughout the game.
On Saturday, we headed to new Nationals Park to watch the game on the giant HD scoreboard. Turns out the event was really a “pick your seat” type of event where fans could buy season ticket packages throughout the park and try out different seats before committing. There seems to be a lot of great ticket locations still available. Fans were eager to try out the best seats in the house. Folks gathered in the PNC Diamond Club, around the dugouts and out in center field to watch the game. It was a nice day to try out the food vendors, without waiting in line, and tour the park leisurely while taking in the game. It got us to thinking and hoping the Nats might make further use of the tremendous HD scoreboard by maybe competing with Screen on the Green to host summer (baseball) movie nights when the team’s away.
Like Nats320, Steph was extremely disappointed to find that her helmet sundae promoted the Yankees. Come on Nats, let’s see some Curly W helmets around the park!
We didn’t really watch Saturday’s game with the same kind of focus, given all the opportunities to explore the stadium. We did see Chico’s rough start and the homeruns by Nick Johnson and Jesus Flores. It was great to see the fans in attendance get excited.
Of course, we also saw the passed ball — the second of this season, but one that gave St. Louis their 5th run. We also saw Colome walk three more batters.
Lopez picked up his first assist and Chico picked off Izturis, so all wasn’t lost defensively. In fact, the Nats stayed in the game but couldn’t get past the 1 run deficit. We left 12 runners on base. Zimmerman, Belliard and Milledge all collected doubles.
On Sunday, John Lannan had a decent outing but got no offensive support from his team. He pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up 2 runs including a solo shot to Ankiel and a handful of doubles. He continues to impress us by pitching out of hard situations. He worked out of trouble several times and performed well today. When we talked to John in Viera, he was so looking forward to making the rotation and playing in the new stadium. We’re very excited that he’s part of the future of this organization.
Millledge was picked off at first by Lohse but Austin Kearns collected the first Nationals’ stolen base of the season. The Nats only collected 5 hits today and couldn’t get any of them home.
The team returns home tonight and will face the Marlins tomorrow at 7pm. Lefty Andrew Miller will face-off against Tim Redding.
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