Lindsey did a great game recap from home, but Steph and I wanted to add a few things from our night at the park.

Let’s talk about the top of the third for just a moment.  Willingham leads off with a single to left.  Gonzalez flies out.  Cantu reaches second base on a throwing error by Guzman.  Willingham’s on third.  Zimmerman and Lo Duca combine to make the fielder’s choice play at home, preventing Willingham from scoring.  2nd out in the books, but Guzman’s error is now on third base.  Treanor is at first with Amezaga at bat.  Treanor steals second base off Lo Duca and Redding — without a throw.  Anyone miss Brian Schneider yet (he’s batting .333 at the moment) (oh wait, Lo Duca brings offense to the lineup; he’s batting .227). 

So now two defensive glitches have moved these runners over with Amezaga at the plate.  Here’s the question.  Why not walk Amezaga and pitch to the pitcher? Amezaga’s double to right scored both Cantu and Treanor.  Why’s Amezaga in the 8 spot anyway? Then, the pitcher actually gets a hit (but not a 2 out, 2 RBI double like Amezaga) to put runners on the corners.  All of this crap leads to Hanley Ramirez launching a 3 run home run to left field.

Sure, we battled for the rest of the game but it’s tough to lose like that.  It’s tough to sit at your beautiful new park, freeze all night, see that nobody is there to watch and then watch the game fall apart so quickly and so carelessly.

A few other things. 

Jon Rauch got pretty beat up in the top of the ninth.  A walk followed by a homer put the Marlins up by three.  The sound folks continue to play Chad Cordero’s siren for Rauch which makes no sense.

With Pena, Dukes, and Dmitri unavailable the Nationals bench is hurting also. Guys like Mackowiak and Willie Harris are what’s left for pinch hits. Neither one of these guys has impressed much at all in the past few games. Also neither show much patience at the plate; would it kill them to wait for a good pitch? Perhaps it’s time to call Justin Maxwell up and see how he plays till the injuries are taken care of.

The Nats Express handled the small crowd with little difficulty.  We’re happy to report that the system for loading up buses has improved dramatically.  Additionally, there are now golf carts taking fans from the buses to the stadium.  Don’t know why the buses can’t drive the extra 3 blocks, but the golf carts are a nice touch.  Remember, Wednesday’s traffic patterns and parking will be different because of the DC United game.

We’re pretty certain last year’s first round draft pick, Ross Detwiler, was in attendance last night to watch that miserable defeat. 

The fans in right field really heckled Marlin Luis Gonzalez for most of the game.  When he was replaced with Cody Ross, they turned it up even louder.  Ross actually started interacting with them, but it was all in good fun.

One final thing…. Felipe had a good night.  Not the kind of night you get excited about — except when you’re trying to climb out of a year long slump.  Lopez went 2 for 3 with an RBI, raising his average to .263.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is filed under Game Recaps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.