Washington Nationals Home Opener

Written by Steve on April 14th, 2009

The Washington Nationals home opener just happened to fall on my dad’s birthday, so I got tickets for us to go check it out. The weather turned out to be nice and the game was particularly exciting. I was really hoping Mr. Obama could make it to throw the first pitch, but unfortunately he was a no-show.

After the first pitch we had a moment of silence for Harry Kalas, who died suddenly just a couple hours before. That’s never a good omen. God rest his soul.

Then the game got underway and it was a wild one. There were 4 fielding errors, some diving catches, some running catches, and frantic throws to home plate. The offense of both teams provided 5 doubles and 6 home runs for a total of 22 hits and 17 runs. Cristian Guzman went 5-for-5, but pulled his hamstring while whacking his 5th hit of the game.

In the 9th inning, the Nationals trailed 6-9 with the heart of the lineup at bat. The Nats quickly scored two runs and it actually looked like they might make a dramatic 9th inning comeback. But Adam Dunn struck out with a mighty swing, and then Elijah Dukes lined out to seal the Phillies’ victory.

All-in-all it was a really fun game. A few more notes:

There were a whole lot of Phillies fans at the game, and I found them to be quite annoying. The fact that they were Phillies fans didn’t annoy me, since I used to be one myself when I was living in south Jersey, but they were obnoxious Phillies fans.
We got Infield Club seats, and they were nice. The “club” was an indoor lounge with a bar, lots of TVs, clean restrooms, and really overpriced food. I spent $30 for us to have a meal of beer and fries… a meal that we could have had for $3 if we were just chilling at my house.
Lastings Milledge was sent to the minor leagues after the game. Elijah Dukes will be the new leadoff hitter.

The box score. The wrap. The Nationals are now the only team in the MLB without a win. Here are some of the pictures I took: