57 Comments
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Tim K's avatar

Great late inning offense to bury the Padres

BassMan's avatar

The crowd today was the wildest I've heard in DC in a long time. A virtual 10th man.

gonatsgo1's avatar

Yep. Had 30k and change in the house.

dcNatz's avatar

Love it! Wish I was there. Sounds like a 2012 game

Piero's avatar

Surprisingly, there were Padre's fans making quite a ruckus.

dcNatz's avatar

“Attention fans, the bottom of the 9th has been canceled.” Extra points for anyone remembering that marketing slogan with the Nats and who said it.

Tegwar's avatar

Was it one of the player who changed the numbers for the winning Lotto sign? I think he and his best friend did that.

dcNatz's avatar

Nope. It was a Closer. Became one of his things during his short stay. Not the most successful, and even hated by some fans, but one of my favorites because of his character and off the field contributions

Tegwar's avatar

I know who it is, His best friend was Clippard.

dcNatz's avatar

Yep! Both of those guys are great.

Tegwar's avatar

Drew Storen. Clip and Save.

gonatsgo1's avatar

Aren't they in business together now? Think they have their own line of bourbon/spirits. Or am I thinking of someone else?

Alice Falk's avatar

Yes, Field of Dreams Whiskey.

peter wood's avatar

He was one of my favorites too. And he was the nextdoor neighbor to one of my best player buddies. And During the off-season Storen invited my buddy (who was a pitcher too) to work out with Drew's off season pitching coach.

Tegwar's avatar

Yea something like that I remember them in the booth together talking about something like that. I really liked Clippard he had a great change up pitch that made some very good hitters look foolish.

dcNatz's avatar

I love the guy. He visited my boy at children’s hospital, along with Clip and Dez. I had the opportunity to talk to him for a while away from baseball. The guy is such a wonderful human being. Just imagine if the umps didn’t screw him in that playoff game against the Cards. What might have been.

peter wood's avatar

I remember you telling that story a while ago:))

gonatsgo1's avatar

Wonder if there's an opener before Littell tomorrow?

dcNatz's avatar

Probably. I don’t like it, but it seems the be the thing these days with the Nats. And it seems to be working fairly well most of the time, so……..

Tegwar's avatar

This was almost like watching two different games.

For six innings, the Nats weren’t patient. They helped King out with weak contact and quick outs. In the seventh, they finally made him throw strikes, and everything changed. It wasn’t built on big hits. It was patience, hustle, putting the ball in play, and taking advantage of Padres mistakes.

Mead coming off the bench is starting to look like a real weapon. He gives Butera more versatility, because he can use him in the right matchup and still have a quality bat available late.

Lord was excellent again, too.

The only thing I didn’t understand was not having another reliever ready when Varland started to lose it. Butera has pushed a lot of the right buttons this year, but that was one of the few mistakes I’ve seen from him. Overall, this was a great example of how the process of patience and pressure can completely flip a game.

peter wood's avatar

Yeah, I was yelling at the TV for Butera to get Varland outta there:))

Tim K's avatar

I heard you!

John walker's avatar

I thought Mike King had changed his name to Maddux King after 6.... Nats run differential down to -1. With a Curly W tomorrow, at worst it would be even steven....

gonatsgo1's avatar

Note from the boxscore: 0 errors today.

Nats Fan in Exile's avatar

Those guys in the third deck waving their shirts looked like complete idiots...I wish I was with them!

dcNatz's avatar

Didn’t see them. The third deck right above home plate? I might know who those guys are. JCC aka dcGuy on other forums is in that area.

Nats Fan in Exile's avatar

right field. Sec 232-ish - 236

Benjamin Newhall's avatar

I had the sound off so no real idea of what was going on, but it looked awesome!

Didace's avatar

It's called Tarps Off (I don't know why). I think it started with the Cardinals.

Nats Fan in Exile's avatar

Well, guessing "tarps off" refers to taking the shirt off, yes?

Didace's avatar

Sure, but why tarp?

dcNatz's avatar

Huh. Seems fairly obvious? At least to me. I like the analogy. I think it actually started in lacrosse though, which there it makes no sense whatsoever. At least in baseball they have an actual tarp that comes off the field in good weather, so calling the shirt a tarp that covers the body is a great connection to the baseball term.

peter wood's avatar

OK, if you say so:)) I think it is very funny!

Tegwar's avatar
2hEdited

Mead now has 25 RBI in 130 AB. That works out to about 96 RBI over a full season of 500 AB, which is pretty good production.

Maybe he’s just on a hot streak, but all of his hitting numbers look good right now. It would be great if he were a better fielder, but he’s fine as a replacement level defender. Even as a bench player, he can be a real threat because he has extra base power.

peter wood's avatar

Love watching him hit!!

david behnke's avatar

Hasn’t his numbers really taken off since he became a regular rather than being an occasional starter

peter wood's avatar

Seems like that is the case:))

Tim K's avatar

Seaver King solo HR in 3rd inning at AAA tonight

Tegwar's avatar

Just looked at the Red Wings’ batting order: Seaver King leading off with a 1.031 OPS, Morales at 1.027, Ortiz .880, House .856, and Pinckney .807.

That’s basically a Murderers’ Row by AAA standards.

Tim K's avatar

A great problem to have

peter wood's avatar

Key hits by Garcia and Mead, ..........again!

Tegwar's avatar

Mead's go ahead run on a walk also huge. Patience can also work. In fact maybe the most surprising thing in the game was Vivas walk in that inning. The players completely flipped the script in the 7th inning.

Ron L's avatar

Exhilarating win, lots of hustle and “+90 foot” plays late in the game. Great team-wide “Natitude”👍

But yes, I am concerned about Dylan Crews still being a “ground ball Eddie”.

It’s one thing to hit a grounder when you’re down two strikes in the count; it’s another to consistently beat first or second pitches of your at-bats into the ground.

🤞that the coaching staff can help him get out of this (so far) never-ending rut.

david behnke's avatar

They have worked wonders with our catchers so I have complete faith they’ll get him changing his hit angle

dcNatz's avatar

Seems it should have been easier for him. But philosophies don’t work for everyone, Long was an example of that, but nothing seems to be working for Crews yet. But if anyone can get him on track, I do have faith in this new hitting coach, based on his overall resume’.

peter wood's avatar

He is one of the best, I understand.

david behnke's avatar

We need to add winning the series to tomorrows list which will erase our current negative 1 in run differential at the same time

Carl Rosendorf's avatar

Won with little from the two All Stars JW and CJ...a good sign.

Time to let Mr. VIVAS GO..

GLH aka NatsFan4Ever's avatar

Always glad for a CURLY W! Nice timely hits and quality ABs when it mattered most. SD has the best ranked defense in the league. Speed and aggressive plays put the pressure on them today. Let's win the series tomorrow afternoon! GO NATS!!

Chris Tharrington's avatar

I have to hand it to the person in the front office who pulled the trigger on the Mead trade. That guy has been a gift from the gods.

McMerc7MHDC's avatar

Can we stop using Varland in high-leverage situations, please? Tired of watching him pitch himself into stress innings.