I figured a Saturday double header was the perfect chance for me to head to New York City for the first time. Not only was it my first time in the city, it was also my first major league double header. We started our trip somewhat spontaneously on Friday after work. After an insanely long bus ride we finally made it to the city. Approaching the city at night was incredible. I can’t believe it has taken me so long to visit NYC! Our friend Rachel and her two wonderful roommates were generous enough to let us stay with them in their awesome Times Square apartment.

We woke up pretty early for the first game on Saturday, and took the train to Queens. I was pleasantly surprised by Shea Stadium. A few people had told us what a dump it was, but I didn’t feel that way at all. It reminded me a lot of RFK and it seemed like every seat had a good view. We opted to sit in $9 tickets, and ended up above the Nationals bullpen. We quickly made friends with the usher in our section; his name was Alfred Rodriguez (A-Rod for short). He was impressed we had made the trip all the way from DC, and thought we were the only Nationals fans in the stands. After a few innings he offered us seats in the front our section just above Ryan Church in left field.

Kristen and I headed to the concession stand for a drink and were stopped by another Nats fan. It was awesome to run into people from home. He had made the trip with his family, and was also a season ticket holder at RFK. I love road trips because we get to see different stadiums, watch great games, hang out in fun cities, but mostly I enjoy the camaraderie we have with other traveling fans.

We headed back to our seats and settled in for a long, hot, and sunny game. The game itself wasn’t too exciting. I am a fan of the Redding/Flores combination. Redding has really impressed me in his last three starts, and he and Flores seem to have a rhythm that usually works. Saturday afternoon Redding lasted six innings giving us just one run on five hits. He also struck out a season high eight batters including Gotay, Delgado, Castro, and Anderson. Redding got into some trouble in the 4th but only one run was scored.Unfortunately, Redding couldn’t get the offensive boost he needed from the team. It was looking dim for the Nationals, Jimenez led off with a single but that was the only hit for 3 more innings. With Felipe Lopez up to bat, I leaned over to our friend Rachel and told her to look out because Lopez likes to hit shot home runs in situations like this. Sure enough he took the next pitch and knocked a homer over the right field wall. It was impressive, it tied the game in the sixth, and kept the Nats from a shut out.

It was in the 7th when Saul Rivera got into some trouble. With one out and a runner on second, Gotay singled to right field and Jose Reyes scored, giving the Mets the lead. Rivera then walked David Wright and Delgado singled scoring Gotay and the Mets led 3-1. It was a surprising performance from Rivera. He has been such a force in the bullpen as of late, pitching his last 6 innings without giving up a run. With our starting rotation constantly changing, it is a comfort to us to have a strong bullpen. These guys have stepped up every game.

Despite the loss, the game was great fun. We had a great time chatting with A-Rod and I think we impressed some Mets fans with our baseball knowledge. We headed out of the stadium to find a place to relax during the break between Saturday’s games. The area around Shea isn’t that impressive, in fact it was hard to find a place to re-dehydrate. We finally settled on a Mexican place and had some authentic food before the game. It was a great afternoon and I was pumped for the last leg of our day…Saturday night’s game!

So it’s not live and it’s actually kind of late - but we had to get up a post about one of the most exciting games we’ve seen this season.

In between games, we killed time outside Shea (not an easy thing to do) and tried to pick up our energy for another game. Our good friend, host and David Wright fan, Rachel, was gracious enough to agree to attending the day-night double header. That’s a lot of baseball for the casual fan but she had a blast (I hope).

We headed in to the same section — lower level left field, right above the bullpen and decided to watch Joel Hanrahan warm up. Oddly, Nick Johnson also hung out in the bullpen for the beginning of the game. Hanrahan looked great so we stopped worrying about his spring training games and tried to have some heart.

. And what could be better than watching him start his Major League career with a triple! He helped us to finish the third with a 3 run lead.

Over the course of the game, he gave up three runs and four hits, struck out seven and walked one. One of those was, of course, Carlos Delgado’s devastating home-run. The game was tied after the 6th.

Then things got crazy. Manny brought in King and Rauch in the 7th. Okay - Fine.

Manny let Rauch bat in the top of the eighth….in the midst of this rally…Rauch struck out, of course.

We scored 3 more runs in the top of the eighth. Mets fans were angry and frustrated, but unpredictable Ryan Langerhans came through to bring in our 6th run.

Then, Rauch pitched a horrible eighth. He gave up 4 hits and 2 runs bringing the score to 6-5. We were nervous - Chief, after all, likes to make things exciting. Apparantly, Rauch and Manny do too. Bad decision. He still gets credit for the win.

But the whole game was full of odd decisions…

Tom Glavine pinch hit in the ninth inning…We were surprised, Mets fans weren’t. It didn’t matter - he grounded out.

Also odd? Tony Batista was intentionally walked. Hey, we’ll take it.

Chief pitched a perfect ninth, the Nats hung on to win it 6-5 on a special Saturday night in New York City.

We’re back for the second half tonight after the short (too short) All-Star break and a short series in Florida. Zimmerman’s ready to go. We’re ready to go. Here’s looking forward to a better second half….one where Austin, Felipe, Church and Zimmerman get more consistent and where potential trade deals meet our approval (i.e…Chief stays in Washington).

It seems natural at this time to reflect on the first half of the season. Where we’ve been – what we’ve seen…in our first season as Nats bloggers and fans.

Our first baseball road trip this year was to the spring training game held in the Orioles AAA Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA. We headed out full of excitement after a long winter without baseball. We left early Friday morning and made it to the beach around 10am. We had plenty of time to explore the area and get settled in for the 2pm game. It was a beautiful day for a sold out baseball game. We sat in the very last row of seats but had a great view of the game and also of the boats in the harbor. The fans were mostly there for the Orioles but we noticed Ryan Zimmerman had quite a few fans in the audience, makes sense since he is from the area.

Although we didn’t win the game, we fell in love with the Nationals all over again that day. The positive influence of Manny Acta was evident right from the beginning. We had hope even when the critics were saying the Nationals would have the worst season ever in baseball. It was our trip to Norfolk, with critics saying our team would be horrible, that gave us the push to start a blog dedicated to the guys that play with heart every single game. They have come such a long way from that last spring training game, and so have we. It’s incredible to think about all these guys have accomplished and we are thankful we have been there to witness some of their great baseball moments. Our mid-season stats are as follows:
We’ve attended over 40 games including 1 in Chicago, 2 in Pittsburgh, 2 in Baltimore and 1 pre-season game in Norfolk, VA.We’ve met some of the other great Nats bloggers including Miss Chatter, Screech’s Best Friend, Nats Power and Bottom Feeder Baseball.

In the first half of the season, we’ve written 130 posts about the Washington Nationals.

We’ve met countless Nationals fans – in other cities or at RFK – that have taught us a lot about the game. We’re still friends with Doug, a Nats fan who we met in Chicago. We’ve met a wonderful couple in Pittsburgh, a group of brothers in Chicago that we ran into again in Baltimore, a mother and her son at RFK getting autographs, some guys on the Metro who thought Kory Casto should “get in there, get hit by pitch or something” and another Nats fan at a bar in Cleveland Park who told that he once told us Tim Russert that it was a “national disgrace that the national pastime wasn’t in the nation’s capitol.” I remember countless children who have entertained us during games – from the group of boys who taught us their “extra, extra” cheers to the little girl who actually ventured her away from her parents to cheer with us, to a little boy who approached me in the Metro – ecstatic that I was wearing a Zimmerman t-shirt. He glowed after getting Jesus Colome’s autograph (his parents asked us on the metro how to get autographs). The Yankees may have more fans, but the Nationals have the best fans. Thank you all for sharing your summer with us.

We also met Bob Carpenter and had a great conversation about baseball. Additionally, we met Dave Jageler; an interview is on the horizon.

Memorable games? You better believe it. Sitting in early April with blankets, that was fun. Fourth of July was also an amazing game. But we will forever be proud to say that we stayed on the eve of Mother’s Day into the early morning hours after two rain delays to see Austin Kearns hit an in-the-park home run and Zimmerman hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game at 2am.

Amazing road-trips? Watching the Nats in Pittsburgh with Kristen’s Dad was a huge moment. Our trips to Chicago and Pittsburgh were both amazing, wonderful experiences. Even Baltimore was kind of a fun mini-road trip. We’re looking forward to New York and Philadelphia.What else? We got yelled at by Manny for “not being ready” to get our picture. Our autographed balls are nearly full. We finally got to watch batting practice in Pittsburgh. We’ve taken pictures with Micah Bowie, Manny Acta, the Coach, Stan Kasten, Ryan Wagner, James Carville and the presidents. Haven’t caught a foul ball yet, but Ayala did throw us one from the bullpen.

Yeah – it’s been a fun season so far….with plenty more wonderful memories to come.

Oh when I look back now

The summer seemed to last forever

And if I had the choice

Ya - I’d always wanna be there

Those were the best days of my life…

Bryan Adams

Steph’s recap covers most of everything. Just a few things to add and pictures to share. For one, I lost bragging rights with my father and my brother when their Pirates defeated my Nationals.

My brother Mike and I after the game

My Dad and I just as the game was endingI have to thank them though for an amazing weekend. My Dad gave us the opportunity to sit in amazing seats twice, plenty of great Pittsburgh food including Primanti Brothers sandwiches and Quaker Steak wings – and my Mom treated us to a night at the Marriott. It was a mini-baseball vacation.

PNC Park is beautiful and the history of the Pirates organization is worthy of respect, except apparantly by their own fans. The lame protest in the 3rd inning Saturday night flopped.

Sunday was much better — though I too missed Flores homerun shot to the left foul line. I did scream and clutch a friend from Pittsburgh when Robert Fick came running for that ball that came to the left field warning track.

It was nice to leave with a win. We also saw Nats fans along the whole 5 hour drive home, at rest stops and gas stations. It felt like we were all traveling together…..forever.

Friday – We headed out for our third road trip of the season. During the drive we listened to the game on the radio. The strength of our relievers didn’t pull through, and we didn’t have much insurance from the offense. I really hate those early lead losses…ouch! Poor Matt Chico had another no decision after pitching a great game.

Saturday – We were able to walk to the park from our hotel. It was pretty cool to walk across the bridge, see the stadium, and the river. PNC Park is beautiful I think I like it better than Camden Yards for sure. It was also cool to see the huge bonze statues of baseball greats outside the stadium, was a great dedication to the men who made sure baseball remained America’s pastime.

The girls and I got to watch the Nationals take batting practice for the first time this season. We were able to stand behind the visitor’s dugout and watch the routine. Let me tell you Dmitri does some interesting jumping jacks…hehe. We had great seats behind home plate; it was cool to see the pitches come right at us. Unfortunately, Bergman seemed a little off; he pitched 4 innings and gave up 6 runs on 8 hits. We just couldn’t seem to end the second inning.

Perhaps more disappointing than our 7-2 loss was the flop of a protest by Pirates fans. In response to 15 losing seasons, Pittsburgh fans scheduled a walk out during the 3rd inning. However, during the 3rd (with the Pirates holding a clear lead) those few fans walking out in protest simply looked like they were going to get a hot dog. I was disappointed that fans seemed to be attending the game only for a protest but decided to stay and cheer on the team once they had a lead. What happened to sticking with your team through wins AND loses? Regardless of your record, your team should be your team, support them! It was a hard loss but it was great to see a game at PNC and we stayed positive for a possible win the next day.

Sunday- Another beautiful day. The Nats made all of those Pirates fans put away the actual brooms they had brought to the stadium with a 3-2 win. That afternoon we relaxed in the first row of left field, right under the scoreboard. Robert Fick played most of the game right in front of us. I picked two very bad moments to leave my seat. The first came early in the game when the Pirates offense hit a ball deep to leftfield. It hit the warning track just over Fick’s head. I was watching the TV standing in line, saw the ball hit and said, “Hey that’s my seat.” Then I saw the girls in the stands watching the action right in front of them and said, “Hey those are my friends on TV!” It was pretty funny. The next time I left my seat that game Jesus Flores (one of my favorites) hit his first home run for the Nationals scoring 2! Incredible, I couldn’t believe I missed it. Flores had a great day, giving the Nats an offensive push and calling a great game defensively. The win on Sunday sure made the long drive home a little easier.

All and all and amazing trip!

The 3 girls with heart are coming to the Da’Burgh!! As K said we are starting our adventure this afternoon and attending games on Saturday and Sunday. I am super excited about this mini-roadtrip. My Dad’s whole family is from this fine city, Troy Hill specifically, and I was actually born there. However, being a military brat, we moved when I was a little tyke, so I haven’t spent much time there. I am excited to head to my offical hometown and explore its many wonders. My Mom always talks about Primanti Bros. sandwiches and how they were the only thing that eased her cravings while she was pregnant with me. So I figure I gotta try at least one. It’s going to be awesome to see a game at PNC Park, as we posted last month, its one of Manny Acta’s favs also!

With hours to go until we head to my home in Pennsylvania, I can’t wait to get on the road.
We’ll be heading to PNC Park early on Saturday for batting practice and then meeting my Dad, Wendy and my brother and his girlfriend. They outnumber us by one, but it sure will be fun to represent the Nats in Pittsburgh, especially since all of their fans are leaving in the 3rd.

Baby, get ready!

We all had to hustle and struggle a little to get out of DC and on the road last night to see our boys in Baltimore. To our surprise, the drive was actually quite smooth; we arrived at 7:30 pm, missing only the first few innings.

It was the Stephs first trip to Camden Yards; they’ll be pictures later today.

We know the Nats surprised Baltimore fans, but we’ve been believing it would all come together eventually. Chief said yesterday,

At the beginning of the season, everybody was writing us off already. They were saying we were going to be one of the worst teams in the history of baseball, but we never thought that. We knew we could go out there and play hard and play right along with these teams. Unfortunately, the first month of the season, we did do exactly what they said we would do, but right now, we are just going out there and staying within ourselves.

Simontacci was excellent against Guthrie, helping to make our 3-1 victory possible.

After parking and food, we settled in on the third-base line around the 4th inning where we watched most of the game. The guys were nice enough to have no action until we arrived. Lopez came through big again last night with a 2-out RBI, while Young, Belliard, Guzman, and Langerhans managed to get some hits. After Ryan Zimmerman’s should-have-been-great hits were taken from him by Tejada, we were so excited when he hit that RBI single in the 8th.

Toward the end of the game, we moved over to stand behind the bullpen and watch King, Rivera, Rauch, Traber and Cordero warm up. We were really pulling for Rauch to have a good night. He looked great in the bullpen and managed to end the inning with 2 strike-outs. Chief also looked great. It was a whole new experience to be that close to a pitcher and able to watch his precise movement. I was practicing the umpire gig by calling Chief’s strikes and balls (heck it was easy; Chief doesn’t throw balls).

To our surprise, we noticed a Nats fan that looked really familiar. After thinking for a few seconds, we realized that we had met him in Chicago at Wrigley in May. We asked him if he remembered, he did, and we all had a nice chat. Some young Nats fan amused us when he told Colome that if HE were Manny, he’d put Colome in.

Manny on the sweep:

Asked how good it was to win the Battle of the Beltway, Acta said, “It good for our fans. They won the bragging rights up until next year. We’ll try to do our best for them. It’s going to be an even bigger rivalry. We know that.”

Just for fun…
DID YOU KNOW?
Prior to Stan Kasten’s decision to ban alcohol in our clubhouses, the Nationals were 9-25. After that decision, the Nats are 20-12.

You know, home is home. But Camden Yards is a beautiful park. I haven’t been there since summer of 2005, so it was wonderful to have an opportunity to catch last night’s game there(despite the crazy, awful traffic). And while I missed my girls and fellow bloggers, it was fun to watch a game with my boss and co-workers.

Because of the traffic problems, we didn’t arrive until 8 - missing the first 3 innings. It was already 2-1 Washington. (Little did we know, we’d still see 8 full innings). While the food was way better than at RFK, the lines were just as long. As a result, I also missed Langerhans’ homerun.

Chico did a great job, pitching into the 7th while giving up only 2 earned runs. It was also fun to watch the guys work in some 2 out rallies.

The 7th inning was tough to watch. Chico, Colome, King, Rauch…all in one inning. Washington took 2 more runs in the 8th, but Chief couldn’t hold on to the lead. Tied game, 6-6.

Traber managed to keep things calm in the 10th. In the top of the 11th, I looked at the line-up and expected the expected. Fortunately, some unpredictable things happened for Washington. For starters, Robert Fick had a hit. Langerhans got walked. Guzman got walked. (Note: one angry Baltimore fan yelled at his pitcher, Chris Ray, “you are our closer!”)

Lopez was at the plate and turned to start fighting with the umpire about a called strike. Manny ran out to restrain Lopez. At this pivotal moment, Lopez’ ejection would have probably cost us a victory. A few pitches later, Lopez drilled it down the first base line, bringing in all 3 runners. Washington leads 9-6. Zimmerman strikes out. Rivera came in to end the ball game.

At least the long drive back was a happy one!