First Nats series of this whole daily interleague thingy.

Gio’s on the mound, and the question is, can I expect two career years in a row outta this guy?  That is the guy who balked in the first run of the game.  Getting close to 100 pitches after four innings?

But then, it all comes together in the 6th. Adam LaRoche, who had come up goose eggs through his first 15 ABs of the season, knocks one out off a weary Jake Peavey (#44, BTW).  Then hits another one in the bottom if the 8th. Good on him.

The White Sox is Adam Dunn’s team. Adam Dunn used to be our clean up hitter. He went to the Sox three years ago and sucked eggs.  Nobody gave up on him and, the following year, he had a stellar year.  Good on him.

Party. Home. Fight. Make up. Wake up. Make up again. Pancakes. Nats.

Strasburg back on the mound. What’s to worry. Automatic win.

Not so fast as the boy gives up 3 runs in the bottom of the first.

Good news is, this is turning into a game worth watching.

“Zim being Zim” twitter

Funny that I don’t tend to view the slugging video highlights the next day. I’m much more interested in the defense. Yet, I’ve not posted any defense photos yet.  Here ya go. Zimmerman, while handing over his “baby face of the Nats” title to Harper is insanely powerful with that glove, and a joy to watch.

Gonna have to watch/discuss/enjoy the Nats in front of her eventually, and today I came close.

Driving to Sacramento for in-laws’ step grandson’s first birthday. I casually switched in the Gameday Audio over the radio, cutting out the 90s country Pandora station.  It didn’t last long, as claims of “torture” led to switching back to Martina McBride and George Strait. I only got to hear account of two batters. Fortunately, they were these two at-bats:

Werth’s double in the third. I heard it.

Not this time!

…then back to our regularly scheduled programming.

We arrived at the party early, so we could have brunch with her dad and his wife (mother of the steps). My battery was dying so I had to live with gamday in the parking lot watching our new darling closer blow a save in his third appearance.  Nothing to panic about statistically this early in the season, but the “new guys” occupy a symbolic place in my consciousness.

The benefit of extras is that I was able to catch the tenth and eleventh inning on my phone once back at the party. Thanks to all for not giving me shit for watching a baseball game at a party.

Homers by Desmond and Ramos in the top of the 11th were enough to keep the Nats ahead of a Cincy run in the bottom of the inning. Back to the party.

Oh dear.

oh dear

For some reason, there was no game on Tuesday, the day after opening, day, but play resumed on Wednesday.  I was watching the start of the game casually in my office on the phone. A fairly uneventful game through the first four innings.  It was in the top of the third when my new boss came into my office for a chat.  We ended up discussing all kinds of exciting things and getting carried away with all the positive changes we were going to ignite in the department, which was cool. But I missed this:

Gio’s first (of many(?)) homer(s) of the year

Gio Gonzalez scores the first run of the game with a freakin’ homer. Look at that miserable stance and ungainly swing.  I was glad to have the conversation, as my position within my work and my workplace has been a cause for concern, but at the same time, pitcher hitting homers is one of the things baseball that speak to me most profoundly. That, and the outfield assist, the play at the plate and the occasional triple play (which I have yet to witness first hand).

The Nats went on to win the game 3-0, blanking the Marlins for a second time. How awesome would it be if nobody scored on the Nats ever this season (I’m writing this after Friday’s game against the Reds).

I told myself only a few innings, but ended up watching most of the game on my phone at the office. I still got work done.

I was a little annoyed at myself. I should have known opening day was a day game and would start at 10:00 my time.  Still, it was good to see Bryce hit two homers at his first two at bats of the season (he led the majors in homers during spring break).

Harper's first homer of the year