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2004 World Series, 2019 Wild Card Game, Anthony Rendon, Arrowhead Stadium, Boston Red So, Brewers, Christian Yellich, Da Bums, Daniel Hudson, Eric Thames, Johnny Damon, Josh Hader, KC Chiefs, LA Dodgers, Max Scherzer, Michael A. Taylor, Milwaukee Brewers, Montral Expos, Nationals Park, Nats, NFL Wild Card Game, NL East Division, St. Louis Cards, Stephen Strasburg, The Nats, The Washington Nationals, Trea Turner, Yasmani Grandal
I’ve been a season ticket holder for each of the 15 years the Washington Nationals have been in DC.
That’s not as long as I’ve been a Red Sox fan – since I was seven years old, 69 years ago – nor have I been as obsessive about the Nats as I have been and am about the Sox. But I’ve attended approximately 20 Nats’ games each year since 2005 and enjoyed most of them.
After all, it’s baseball, which I love, and when watching the Nats, I don’t have to be afraid of high places or sharp instruments (my usual concern when watching the Sox). And in every game I’ve attended, I’m always looking for something I’ve never seen before.
Last night that ‘never seen before’ was not so much what happened on the field, though that was thrilling, but what happened in the stadium.
Bear with me for a bit of background and several diversions.
The Nats have won the NL East Division four times (2012, 2014, 2016, and 2017), but they’ve never won a post-season series and were eliminated from post-season play in each of those four years (often in game five).
That changed last night. (I’ll leave it to the water cooler pundits – do they still have water coolers? – to argue as to whether a one-game Wild Card playoff can be considered a post-season series.)
The game opened with the Nats’ franchise face, All Star pitcher, 35 year-old Max Sherzer, giving up a walk to the lead off batter and then immediately thereafter a home run to the Milwaukee Brewers’ second batter, Yasmani Grandal.
Bang. Down 0-2 after less than five minutes.
It got a bit worse in the second inning when Scherzer gave up his second home run, this time to Eric Thames. Now it was 0-3. Was this going to be a one and off and just another post-season heartbreak for the Nats and their fans?
Until the 8th inning nothing changed. Scherzer settled down, as he often does after giving up his usual two home runs a game, but he wasn’t sharp. Stephen Strasburg, 31, took over in the 6th inning and did what he’s been doing all season (18-6 for the year with 251 strikeouts), shut down the opposition though it was the first time he’s pitched as a reliever. Over his three innings, he only gave up two hits, struck out four, and kept the Nats in the game.
But they couldn’t score more than the one run they got in the third inning (a home run by Trea Turner). The Brewers pitchers shut down the Nats with just three hits through the first seven innings.
On came Brewers’ truly sensational All Star closer Josh Hader (138 strike outs in 75 2/3 innings this year…virtually unheard of in the history of baseball). He just needed to get the final six outs so his team could win the Wild Card game.
Another digression please.
The Nats started the 2019 season with great expectations and predictions of winning the NL East Division by nearly everyone who follows baseball. Then they lost 19 of their first 31 games. The Phillies, Braves, and Mets were looking good, and the Nats seemed headed for a dismal year.
Then they went 69-36 beginning in June to end with a 94-69 season record and a Wild Card playoff spot. The Brewers went 20-7 in September, even without their wonderful right fielder, All Star and 44-home run hitter Christian Yellich. Though the Brewers faltered in their final season series, the stage was set for one of baseball’s cruelest tests, a one play-off game to continue towards with World Series.
In the 8th inning of last nights’ 163rd game of the season, Hader faulted. Despite his 100+ fastball, he couldn’t keep the Nats off the bases (thanks to a disputed hit batsman to pinch hitter Michael A Taylor, a broken bat, bloop single to center by the aging and oft injured 35 year-old Ryan Zimmerman, and a walk to the dangerous but slumping MVP candidate Anthony Rendon).
Then the baseball Gods smiled on the Nats and rained on the Brewers’ fortunes when the 20 year old Juan Soto hit a sharp line drive to right, scoring two for the tie, and when 22-year old rookie Trent Graham misplayed (bad hop?) that line drive, Rendon scored from first, giving the Nats a 4-3 lead. (Soto was tagged out between second and third but celebrated, along with the 42,933 fans in the stadium, despite his mistake in allowing himself to be the third out of the inning.)
Then in the 9th, on came the shaky Nats’ bullpen in the person of Daniel Hudson, who shut down the shocked Brewers and nailed the 4-3 victory, saving not only the game but also the reputation and confidence of the shaky bullpen and the play-off season for the Nats.
So why was this night different from all others as I indicated at the outset above?
For me. it was not that the Nats won, although I loved that.
It was not simply the manner in which they won, though that was thrilling too.
It was what occurred in the stands.
In the 15 years I’ve attend Nats’ games (approximately 300 games), I’ve never seen the Nationals’ fans as they were last night. From the time we entered the stadium until we left three and a half hours later, there was not a moment of silence. There was not just a buzz when we arrived; the fans were already making themselves heard. The cheering, flag waving, and chanting prior to, during, and at the conclusion of the game was something I’ve never seen or heard here before. The fans were not just loud (led by a speaker system and scoreboard that encouraged their emotions), they were relentless. Even when Scherzer put them in a hole right off, the fans were not silenced.
Another small diversion. When I went to the fourth game of the Red Sox World Series game in St. Louis in 2004 with the Sox up three games to zero and not having won a WS in the preceding 86 years, the truly wonderful Cards’ fans around me said the Sox would not win in four, not that night, not in St. Louis. Then Johnny Damon hit a lead off home run for the Sox into the Cards’ bullpen, and the air went out of the stadium.
Not so at Nationals Park last night.
The fans were on their feet as much as they were in their seats, a phenomena I’ve never seen in Washington, where the fans are not particularly vocal nor overly demonstrative. (I’ve spent some time in Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs, and understand what it’s like to be with truly vocal and demonstrative fans.)
Last night, the fans were truly a part of why the Nats’ won. They never gave up, despite the dreaded feeling that the Nats were about to be eliminated once again.
Final diversion. I don’t know what people saw who were watching the game on TV, though I saw on Twitter from a long-time Fenway friend that at one point the camera showed eight straight TV shots of Nats’ fans holding their head(s) in their hands prior to that 8th inning rebound. But that’s not what I experienced in the stadium. I don’t mean to take anything away from what the Nats’ players, manager, and entire team accomplished. They truly never gave up (forgive that tired phrase) and never seemed to feel they were entirely out of it, a spirit they have shown for much of the season.
While there were a number of Nats’ ‘heroes ‘ in this win, it was the energy, voices, and the once in 15 years truly exuberant enthusiasm of the fans that I believe made the difference in DC last night.
Indeed, what a delight to walk out of the stadium and hear the sustained chanting and celebration of the 42,993 participants in this win.
PS – The Nats record since June, that 69-36 run. is a game and a half better than the 104-58 Dodgers did since June. Da Bums, who play in a much weaker Division than the Nats, better not take this team, nor its fans, for granted for the best of five starting Thursday.
Brian Steinbach said:
Well said Rick. Although I did detect some quieting of the fans for a while in the middle innings, they were all there in the 8th. And even when some fans had their head in their hands, it was anxiety coupled with cheering, not despair – anxiety whether and when it would actually happen or not. (But I did note two guys in the very front row not standing, one of whom I gave a pass as he looked to be up their in age).
You didn’t see the replays – but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ball hit first the hand and then the bottom of the bat like it did with Taylor. I think the right call, but very close. Then Zim’s broken bat blooper – after twice being on deck earlier and then called back – followed by a walk and Soto’s hit – followed by an error because the rookie charged the ball too much so it could carom off his glove – what a sequence.
If only the Mystics had won too.
Richard said:
Indeed a game to remember on so many levels.
Cory said:
I assume your ears are still buzzing after that game and those Nats fans. Awesome win and
good luck against the Dodgers!
Land said:
R
As someone who has watched thousands of baseball games, you understand, at a fundamental level, the importance of the fact that there’s no clock in baseball. This is a grand glorious reason why we love, love, love this game. Rarely does one team have such a lead (eg 15-2 with Nolan Ryan on the mound), even in the last two innings, that they can’t lose. Rarely does a trailing team give up. And unlike every other sport (where only about a dozen things can happen at any one moment, in baseball there are hundreds of things that can happen when two players face each other mano-a-mano. Yesterday the Nats were el hombres grandes/ winners, but they could play this game again and again and again and again with the same starters and none of the games would look the same The heroes would be different, the goats would be different.
Now a different kind of fun starts…will it be the Nats or the Dodgers that has the imagination and the skill and the luck to put together three games that outscore the other. Worthy contestants…these two. I know where my dial is going to be set. After the Dodgers win the first two, I hope you have seats in DC for the third and final game
L
Christopher Boutourline said:
Didn’t watch the game but what a great win and there’s nothing like an energized crowd to rev-up the home team.
Coincidentally, I was in the crowd at Fenway when Max Scherzer pitched so dominantly for the Tigers vs the Sox in the 2013 ALCS that the Fenway Faithful were silenced through 7 innings. When a seemingly still strong Scherzer was pulled with a 2-1 lead you could feel the hope ripple through the crowd. The roar when Victorino hit his go-ahead grand slam was the loudest I’ve ever heard Fenway-probably because everybody, finally, had a chance to raise their voices.
Ed Scholl said:
Thanks for giving us TV viewers an insight into want went on in the stadium. It was a delight to watch on TV, but so much more memorable when you are there in person…and participatory (I’m sure you’ve done some Baby Shark moves with your arms this season since Gerardo Parra arrived!).
bill said:
Thanks Rick for your spectacular review from the seats. Believe it or not, I went through the same level of emotions for each of the points of the game you mention, even here in Atlanta where I have the TV package “After Innings” that allows me to see most of the Nat’s games. Since we are recent Atlanta residents, it is taking me awhile to make the transition as far as my favorite baseball team, though I have come to enjoy the team here. (we’ll see what happens when and if there is a confrontation of sorts and I might have to choose my allegiance.)
Kay watches every game with me and has learned the game over the years, though she is in love with Michael and Anthony more than anything else, and sometimes taunts me at my tenacity as a TV fan. Tuesday night was no exception.
The reason I felt the level energy from a 1,000 miles away which you have described so beautifully, is that through your generosity, I watched the game a few seasons ago, when Zimmerman pitched a no hitter, i believe it was the last game of the season. The stadium literally exploded. When Taylor got aboard Tuesday night, when Zim’s bat exploded, and Rendon, coaxed a walk, I was on edge. And then, the line drive and error, I leaped from my rocker, no small trick at my age, and
I could identify with the frenzy that followed in the stadium. It was like time stood still.
Thank you again for sharing your gift of baseball, and at that time a few years, two tickets to the game of a life time for me, even though you were not there in the ball park at a that moment, but at home in your rocker.
P.S the other ticket that ecstatic evening was held by a visiting father of a Palestinian friend of ours with Israeli citizenship who had never witnessed a baseball game in his life. He knew not what had happened on the last pitch that day, but he knew that this was a very special moment for everyone else in the stadium that day. He still talks about that day when we meet. BP
Kevin Curtin said:
Rick
Great article – and it was a wonderful game to watch – I have to say I was rooting for Milwaukee as I tend to root for the small market teams (unless they’re playing the Yankees of course). So I will now root for the Nats over LA
But…i have an issue to raise… like many, I hate the current one and done playoff and in particular how the teams who win these “playoff” games celebrate
And while I enjoyed and felt your depiction of the energy at the stadium last night, and I understand the Nats have never won a post season playoff game until now, watching Tampa Bay and the Nationals storm the field after winning ONE (1) game seems over the top – storming the field after a long grueling 162 game season and clinching a playoff is obviously appropriate; storming the field after winning 4 games to win the penant is also very appropriate, as is winning the WS.
So I say to the Nats and Rays, chill out – so you’re better than the other worst team in your league that made the playoffs; but you still have to win 11 more games to gain any respect; storm the field later when we’ll take you more seriously
Hoping to join you in DC or NYC for a Yankees-Nats world series
Kevin