TODAY'S NATIONALS/GIANTS GAME: holy cow!
On the way home from today's thrilling Nationals@Giants game, I spotted a billboard out of the window of the MUNI train. In it, two people sat at a dinner table, apparently on a date. The man, decked in fab Banana Republic threads, sat across from a woman utterly distracted by a person outside of the photo's frame, someone we can't see. The billboard read: "She always secretly liked his brother, Edward."
I held up my fandom for the Giants and Nationals and found that I wanted -- secretly -- the Nationals to win.
For a lot of reasons, today's game was a howling good time. First, it was beautiful, hot even. I got a tan. Second, two of my favorite teams collided in a heavy-hitting game. If last night's game was a galleria of pitching moments, today's was an exhibition of batting and base-running prestidigitation. Exhausting, really, and way fun. Third, the Giants put up an offensive fight before the Nationals exploited San Francisco's Great and Documented Weakness: their bullpen. More about that and the Cloud of Doom below. Fourth, I thought I was going to be sitting in the bleachers, but instead found myself 18 rows up from the left side of home plate. Schwing! Fifth, Giant J.T. Snow and National Nick Johnson wore old-school knickers with black socks. And finally, this was my first live game of the regular season. TV and streaming video simply don't capture the glow and color of a daylit ball field, especially one as nice as the Giants' park.
I won't bother with a play by play, although I highly recommend streaming the 3rd-6th innings and picking up again at the 8th, when the Giants' Cloud of Doom thundered in over the bay, causing various relief pitchers' flesh to burst into flames. But I will say this. The Nationals, thanks, no doubt to Frank Robinson's cunning, really know how to exploit a team's weakness. They did it with the Dodgers earlier in the week and have now done it with the Giants. You have to come to the table with a complete pitching solution, or the Nationals will dance merrily around your headstone. (I can't wait to see how the Cubs and Nationals mix it up next weekend. Prior and Maddux would be great forces to withstand D.C. Will Wood be back by that time?)
Bitchin' moments from today's game...
Before: Alou with a 3-1 count, 2 outs, and the bases loaded.
After: Two super stars -- Alou and Snow -- sharing grand slam love at the plate. Aren't J.T.'s knickers rad?
SF catcher Mike Matheny before the soft line drive that brought Pedro Feliz home, breaking a momentary 7-7 tie in the bottom of the fifth. The game remained 8-7, Giants, until the disastrous top of the ninth, when the Nationals dismissed Giants relievers with 4 runs.
In the top of the 9th, with only a 1-run lead, Felipe Alou does something that beggars description...but I'll describe it anyway. He sends in a rookie, Jeremy Accardo, who debuted, well, in the top of the 9th. Um, today. Everything went to hell in a flaming basket after that. Here's Felipe leaving the field after retiring the young man who proves -- to my mortification -- the Giants have no more strength in their bullpen.
In the big, lovely, mostly clear skies over Giants stadium today hung the least ominous form of cloud, but dark lords wear many masks, and the beauty of layer-cake formations can't conceal the omniscient threat of...the Cloud of Doom.
I held up my fandom for the Giants and Nationals and found that I wanted -- secretly -- the Nationals to win.
For a lot of reasons, today's game was a howling good time. First, it was beautiful, hot even. I got a tan. Second, two of my favorite teams collided in a heavy-hitting game. If last night's game was a galleria of pitching moments, today's was an exhibition of batting and base-running prestidigitation. Exhausting, really, and way fun. Third, the Giants put up an offensive fight before the Nationals exploited San Francisco's Great and Documented Weakness: their bullpen. More about that and the Cloud of Doom below. Fourth, I thought I was going to be sitting in the bleachers, but instead found myself 18 rows up from the left side of home plate. Schwing! Fifth, Giant J.T. Snow and National Nick Johnson wore old-school knickers with black socks. And finally, this was my first live game of the regular season. TV and streaming video simply don't capture the glow and color of a daylit ball field, especially one as nice as the Giants' park.
 |  |
| Starters Jason Schmidt (SF) and John Patterson (WSH) | |
I won't bother with a play by play, although I highly recommend streaming the 3rd-6th innings and picking up again at the 8th, when the Giants' Cloud of Doom thundered in over the bay, causing various relief pitchers' flesh to burst into flames. But I will say this. The Nationals, thanks, no doubt to Frank Robinson's cunning, really know how to exploit a team's weakness. They did it with the Dodgers earlier in the week and have now done it with the Giants. You have to come to the table with a complete pitching solution, or the Nationals will dance merrily around your headstone. (I can't wait to see how the Cubs and Nationals mix it up next weekend. Prior and Maddux would be great forces to withstand D.C. Will Wood be back by that time?)
Bitchin' moments from today's game...
In the third inning, Moises Alou's grand slam.
Before: Alou with a 3-1 count, 2 outs, and the bases loaded.
After: Two super stars -- Alou and Snow -- sharing grand slam love at the plate. Aren't J.T.'s knickers rad?
SF catcher Mike Matheny before the soft line drive that brought Pedro Feliz home, breaking a momentary 7-7 tie in the bottom of the fifth. The game remained 8-7, Giants, until the disastrous top of the ninth, when the Nationals dismissed Giants relievers with 4 runs.
In the top of the 9th, with only a 1-run lead, Felipe Alou does something that beggars description...but I'll describe it anyway. He sends in a rookie, Jeremy Accardo, who debuted, well, in the top of the 9th. Um, today. Everything went to hell in a flaming basket after that. Here's Felipe leaving the field after retiring the young man who proves -- to my mortification -- the Giants have no more strength in their bullpen.
In the big, lovely, mostly clear skies over Giants stadium today hung the least ominous form of cloud, but dark lords wear many masks, and the beauty of layer-cake formations can't conceal the omniscient threat of...the Cloud of Doom.
posted by Andrew at
8:45 PM
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