Nationals Break Losing Streak in Late Inning Win over the Angels

Friday, September 11th

Finally…the Washington Nationals scored some late inning runs and then held on for a 4-3 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Angels.

Staff ace Cade Cavalli started for the Nationals. He pitched six complete innings, giving up two runs on three hits while striking out nine Angels.

The Angels started the scoring in the top of the first. With one out, Mike Trout smacked his 21st home run to center field. 1-0 Los Angeles.

The Nationals tied it up in the bottom of the 4th. With one out, Harry Ford and Jorbit Vivas both drew walks. James Wood later singled to left scoring Ford.

The Angels broke that tie in the top of the 7th. Vaughn Grissom and Moises Ballesteros both walked. Christian Moore then singled to left field, scoring Grissom. 2-1 Angels.

Washington rallied in the bottom of the 8th. Brady House led off with a walk and went to second base when CJ Abrams ran out an infield single. Dylan Crews also had an infield hit, loading the bases. House was then forced out at home on a grounder off the bat of Yohandy Morales. Andrew Pinckney then hit a sac fly to right field scoring Abrams. Jorbit Vivas doubled to right, scoring Crews and Morales. 4-2 good guys.

But as we all know, nothing has come easy for our Nationals over these past couple of weeks. With the Angels batting in the top of the 9th, Oswald Peraza walked. Christian Moore then doubled to deep right filed, scoring Peraza. But then Kyren Paris flied out to left, ending the game. 4-3 Nationals.

Clayton Beeter got the win in relief. That brought his season record to 6 wins and 5 losses.

Samy Natera Jr. took the loss for the Angels. He pitched the 8th inning, giving up three runs on three hits.

We will certainly take the win. Especially coming back late in the game to earn the victory. That’s been going the other way lately, so good for us!

Let’s try to keep it going in tomorrow’s game. Start time 4:05 ET.

Nationals Tie it in the 9th; Win it in the 10th

Saturday, September 12th

Tonight’s game mimicked yesterday’s contest to a point. But this time the Angels actually came back and took the lead in the top of the 9th. But our Washington Nationals were able to tie it up in the bottom of the inning, and then push across the winning run in the 10th.

Starting Nationals’ pitcher Andrew Alvarez had a no-hitter after 7 innings. He was not allowed to continue in the game as he’d thrown 97 pitches in what was the longest start of his career. But as usual things got interesting when the relievers came in.

The Nationals started off the scoring in the bottom of the 1st. With one out, Abimelec Ortiz doubled to right field. CJ Abrams came through with two outs and hit a double to center, scoring Ortiz. 1-0 Washington.

The Nats made it 4-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. With one out Keibert Ruiz doubled to center field. After Jorbit Vivas struck out, Jacob Young singled to left field, scoring Ruiz. James Wood then ran out an infield hit, sending Young to third. Abimelec Ortiz smacked a single to deep right field, scoring Young and Wood.

The game remained 4-0 until the top of the 8th. The Angels finally broke through with three runs. With two outs, Mike Trout walked. Wade Meckler then doubled to center field scoring Trout. Vaughn Grissom then followed with his 11th home run to left field. 4-3 good guys.

The Angels kept the heat on and took the lead in the top of the 9th. Oswald Peraza led off with a walk and scored on Denzer Guzman’s double to left field. Kyren Paris grounded out sending Guzman to third base. Guzman then scored on a sac fly off the bat of Moises Ballesteros. 5-4 Los Angeles.

Our guys were able to tie it up in the bottom of the 9th. Jose Tena walked. Tena then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error. Andres Chaparro then singled to center scoring Tena. 5-5, extra innings it is.

CJ Abrams started the bottom of the 10th on second base. With one out, Daylen Lile was intentionally walked. Abrams stole third base and Lile advanced to second. Harry Ford then hit a ground ball to Zach Neto who booted the grounder allowing Abrams to score the winning run.

This was a good character win for the Nationals. Leading the game into the 8th inning, giving up the lead in the 9th, and then tying up the game in the bottom of the 9th and winning it the next inning. That’s the kind of victory we needed. In too many games this season that comeback didn’t happen. Good job, guys.

FYI, Clayton Beeter was sent down to Triple-A after yesterday’s game. Beeter had been the Nationals’ closer for most of the season and performed admirably through the first half of the year. Lately, his fast ball had lost some MPH, and he was having trouble finding the strike zone. However, he did get the win in yesterday’s game, giving him a 6-win 5-loss record for the season. I guess the Nats just wanted to mix things up a little. It’ll be interesting to see who the team calls up to the big club to replace Beeter. Stay tuned.

Game three is tomorrow at 1:35 ET. Let’s see if the Nats can bring out the broom…

Nationals Bring Out the Broom; Sweep the Angels

Sunday, September 13th

Hey, they did bring out the broom!

The Washington Nationals changed the script a little bit in this third game of the series. In the first two games, the Nationals jumped out to early leads and then had to come back in the later innings to grab those wins. This time they were the team with the late inning rally.

The Angels started the scoring in the top of the fourth. With one out, Moises Ballesteros smacked his 9th home run to center field. 1-0 Los Angeles.

LA made it 2-0 in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Zach Neto knocked his 26th home run to center field.

The Nationals managed to tie it up in the bottom of the sixth. CJ Abrams doubled to center field and came around to score on Yohandy Morales’s single. Daylen Lile singled sending Morales to second base. Keibert Ruis was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Brady House then grounded out to the shortstop, scoring Morales. 2-2.

Los Angeles took back the lead in the top of the eighth. Zach Neto walked to lead off the inning. With one out, Wade Meckler worked another base on balls. Vaughn Grissom got on

base on a fielding error by CJ Abrams. Bases loaded. A wild pitch scored Neto. Moises

Ballesteros then hit a sac fly bringing home Meckler. 4-2 Angels.

With the pressure on, the Nationals came back in a big way in the bottom of the ninth. Yohandy Morales led off with a single to right. Daylen Lile then tripled to center field, scoring Morales. With one out, Jorbit Vivas singled to left scoring Lile. Jacob Young then doubled to center, sending Vivas home. With two outs, Dylan Crews singled to left field scoring Young. 6-4 good guys.

The Angels made it close in the top of the ninth. Josh Lowe doubled to left field and advanced to third base on Adam Frazier’s ground out. Christian Moore followed with a ground out of his own, scoring Lowe. Zach Neto then struck out swinging, ending the game.

Erik Tolman earned the victory with an inning of scoreless relief. Luke Murphy took the loss for LA.

The Nationals played well in earning this three- game sweep. Timely hitting and some decent relief pitching usually lead to a great outcome. That last victory raised the Nationals record to 70 wins and 81 losses. Not what we wanted at this part of the season, but better than predicted at the beginning of the year.

Washington takes tomorrow off before playing two at home against the Philadelphia Philles on Tuesday and Wednesday. Game time on Tuesday is 6:45 ET.

Dave’s Dime…9-11-01.

This past Friday marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of one of the darkest days in American history. You readers of the column who reside in the Washington D.C. area were part of the front lines on that early morning and may carry some devastating memories of the attack on the Pentagon.

Even though not nearly as dramatic or traumatizing, I, too, have memories of that fateful day. For one thing, it was my 50th birthday. I was teaching English at a high school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that was situated on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy. It was a public high school but was built on this spot in 1959 to help educated the children of the many military families who would be stationed at this new facility.

I began teaching at Air Academy High School in the fall of 1999. Up until that fateful day, I would drive onto the property and pass a guard shack that was seldom occupied. It’s a beautiful part of the Pikes Peak Region, and I felt a sense of pride in being even a small part of this amazing place.

September 11th, 2001, was a Tuesday. Back in the early 21st Century, classrooms were not yet filled with computers or cell phones, but each classroom did have a television set. It was my free hour and I had left the set on after the daily announcements.

While getting ready for my next class, I remember glancing up at the screen and seeing smoke pouring out of one of the Twin Towers. My immediate thought was of a fire that was consuming one of the building’s floors.

My curiosity sent me over to the main office where I was informed of the plane crash that was the cause of the fire. While I was watching I witnessed the second airplane crashing into the second tower. I was in shock. Just like everyone else. The rest of the day passed by quickly and then the changes began.

We weren’t allowed back on the Air Force Academy grounds for the rest of the week. Since we were under contract to teach so many days during each semester, we were required to meet at a huge church a little north of the high school and sit around for a few hours. We graded any assignments we hadn’t already taken care of, had a few meetings, drank a ton of coffee, and just conversed with our fellow educators and tried to explain in our own words what we thought had happened and why.

Beginning that next Monday, our school start time was pushed back from 7:30 to 9:30 AM. I don’t really remember why. Something to do with the base having time to search the area every morning before we were allowed on the base. Most of us teachers were civilians, so we didn’t ask any questions. This played havoc with the football team’s practice schedule. They had to move their practices to before school because it was 5:30 PM when we were now dismissed

from school, and there just wasn’t that much time to work on new plays before darkness set in.

I also remember the students were not allowed to drive any of their own vehicles onto the base. They had to park every morning at a nearby shopping mall and be bussed to school.

Teachers could park on the base, but we had to stay approximately fifty feet away from the school buildings.

This lasted for about a month. We had just started to enjoy our banking hours when we were switched back to our normal schedule.

Soon after the attack, construction started in earnest. Those guard shacks with one lane on both the north and south entrances to the Academy became three lanes. Just inside the south entrance, a large building was constructed for the inspection of any larger trucks that came on the property. They were pulled off the main road and directed to this building

where the driver had to share his or her bill of lading and the entire vehicle was searched from top to bottom.

Everyone who came on base now had to show a military-type ID with picture, and no unauthorized individuals could get past that guard gate.

I remember one time the MPs came by early in the morning before the start of the school day and inspected the inside of that little covering you’d open on the side of your car before you filled the tank with gasoline.

Nothing’s been the same since that day. And fifty-years later I’m just hoping that today’s students know anything at all about what happened on 9-11-2001. I ask the students on my daily bus route if this hugely important event is something they go over in class, and they do say yes.

Which is good. It’s just like my generation being taught about Pearl Harbor. It doesn’t mean as much to you if you weren’t alive or old enough to realize what was happening. But it’s still something we all should know and think about and try not to let happen again. Which is more important now than ever before.

Major League Baseball actually played a vital part in helping our nation heal. MLB cancelled all games for a week after 9-11. The first time games had been suspended since the 1918 influenza pandemic.

That first game after the tragedy was played in Shea Stadium and featured the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves. A dramatic go-ahead two-run homer from Mike Piazza did a great deal toward raising the spirits of all New Yorkers. The game itself became a symbol of New York’s resilience. Baseball comes to the rescue.

It’s so important to keep even things you might want to forgot in the minds of our future generations. The Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, JFK’s assassination, 9-11, all horrendous events that need to be remembered in the hopes of never being repeated. But as we know, history does tend to repeat itself, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying to make things better.