Tom Bridge – We Love DC http://www.welovedc.com Your Life Beyond The Capitol Wed, 22 Apr 2015 18:37:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.9 Why I (Still) Love DC: Tom http://www.welovedc.com/2015/04/22/why-i-still-love-dc-tom/ Wed, 22 Apr 2015 17:00:11 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98570

When I started writing about DC more than ten years ago now, it was a reflex. I had decided that I was going to make the best of my time here, I decided that this was a place to love, and that I should love it here. And so I went out to find all the things I loved about DC. There were many of us at that old site that wrote because this city had made a personal connection with us, that it was a part of our makeup.

As We Love DC came into being, we were doing so at the curl of the wave that was a new DC. Adrian Fenty was Mayor, everyone was talking about how DC was changing, growing, building. The Williams administration, though decidedly unsexy, had made DC a place that could receive investment again, that could build a tax base that could increase services again. DC wasn’t the inner city, DC was just the city.

The last ten years have been a major change for the city – not a change that’s been just for the good, there’s been a lot of DC history that’s been swept out past the boundary stones – and it was exciting to be here and watch it happen. Old vacant storefronts became award-winning bars. Breweries appeared for the first time in almost a century. Industry was possible in a city that was largely focused around political capital, DC has proven, and those are the things that have excited me most about the last ten years. We make things here. We make beer. We make bikes. We even make weed now. We make things. We’re not just an economy of accidental convenience, we’re an economy of industry, of confluence, of vision.


More than that change, the District was on the rise again. In the forty years that followed the 1968 Riots surrounding the death of Martin Luther King Jr., there was a slow decline, as the population fell below 750,000 in 1970, ebbing to under 600,000 in 2000. There was this sprawling suburban life that would give birth to the Arlington/Fairfax corridor and the PG and Montgomery County sprawls, but the District was bleeding people.

There’s been a lot of words written that DC isn’t the Chocolate City it was back in 1970, when the population was 70% African American, and they’re right. There’s a decidedly lighter color on average in DC now. This has its crazy moments – just look at what it costs to rent in the city, look at your grocery bill and see all the organics – but like many cities there are ebbs and flows.

I’ve come to appreciate the District’s immense history. Since we moved to Brookland in 2010, I’ve spent more time than ever appreciating the African American writers who called my neighborhood home, from Pearl Bailey to Sterling Brown. More than just its history past, I am part of its current history. I spend time with my neighbors, who’ve lived here since the 60s in some cases, and I listen to their stories of what Brookland was like back then. When I was living in Arlington, everything felt so isolated. Everyone just wanted their own space, they focused on their own lives, eschewing their neighbors. It was the loneliest I ever felt in a big city.

Since we moved into DC, I’ve realized something important about good cities: good cities make it possible for you to intersect with your neighbors without forcing them into every aspect of your space.

When we lived in Arlington, we hardly ever intersected with our neighbors and our neighborhood. That wasn’t part of the focus of our community; everyone could stay in their own sphere, live in their own life, and never take part in the civic arena. I suppose it’s something that some people want, that suburban life where your home is your castle and the moat keeps everyone out.

We haven’t done that in DC. We’ve met our neighbors, had them over for dinner, participated with them in planning a new middle school, helped issue new liquor licenses, saved a park and some old growth trees, and seen more businesses arrive in our neighborhood. Every time I get homesick for California, I think about all the wonderful people I couldn’t leave behind here. I think about all the opportunities we’ve had here. I can’t leave this place behind. I need my neighbors, my neighborhood, my friends, and this marvelous place we share, together.

3,750 posts and 1,875,000 words later, I still love DC. And I think I always will.

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He Loved DC: Marion S. Barry (1936 – 2014) http://www.welovedc.com/2014/11/23/he-loved-dc-marion-s-barry-1936-2014/ Sun, 23 Nov 2014 17:40:41 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98512

The news hits you like a ton of bricks, if you’ve ever lived in the District of Columbia: Marion Barry passed away this morning at United Medical Center. Barry was a four-term mayor of the District of Columbia, and a four-time council member for Ward 8, with a career in DC politics spanning 35 years. 

The contentious council member and former mayor was often a polarizing figure, censured for his actions with his constituent service fund, frequently in trouble with the IRS for failing to pay his taxes and with the city for failing to pay his parking tickets, he is best known for his six-month stint in prison related to a drug charge after a videotaped sting operation in the Vista Hotel on M Street (now a Westin Hotel). 

Beyond those charges, and those misdeeds, it is impossible to ignore Barry’s humanitarian streak. His focus on jobs programs for youth brought the Summer Youth Employment Program to fruition during his first term – something many residents of the District say was their very first job. It is also impossible to ignore Barry’s time in the civil rights movement as a co-founder of Pride, Inc, which provided relief for those whose houses were destroyed in the 1968 riots, as well as job training and food for the poor.

It is sometimes impossible for me to resolve the Marion Barry of the civil rights movement and his focus on his constituents in Ward 8, with the Marion Barry of the Vista Hotel, the tax scofflaw, and council misconduct. The extremes for which Barry is known make him out to be larger than life, with impossible conflicts of character. No man better represented the constant fight between the better angels of our nature and our human flaws than did Marion Barry. He was a complicated figure who did much for many of the least of us, but couldn’t keep himself out of trouble.

If while he was alive, Barry’s presence was a target for criticism from the rest of America – some would say the image of Senator Marion Barry was the single greatest argument against statehood for the District – in his passing, he gives one last gift, freeing the city from that association. 

I visited the Wilson Building recently, to see some friends at Councilmember McDuffie’s office, and up on the fifth floor, just past the council chambers, is a set of standees made for the 40th anniversary of the Home Rule Act. There were a number of pictures I’d never seen before from the early days of the city’s new, more free period. In so many of them are a young and vibrant Marion Barry in his shirt-sleeves working on the city. I think I would’ve liked Barry better if that was the one I knew first, instead of the one that made the city into a series of jokes. Thankfully, those jokes are over now. I think that is one last gift he can give us all.

Rest in peace, Mr. Mayor.

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We Love Music: Sonic Highways http://www.welovedc.com/2014/10/28/we-love-music-sonic-highways/ http://www.welovedc.com/2014/10/28/we-love-music-sonic-highways/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2014 17:09:20 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98501 Foo Fighters at Black Cat

When I heard on Tuesday around noon that the Foo Fighters were going to play a club show in DC to go along with the premiere of the second episode of Sonic Highways. When the news was confirmed by the Black Cat, people left their downtown offices and headed for the 14th Street club to stand in line. By 3pm there was a line, and by 4pm, it stretched for blocks. By 5pm, all hope was lost for the second half of the line. 

When I arrived on Friday night, 90 minutes before doors, the line for entry stretched halfway to T Street. They opened the doors early, catching most of us by surprise. By the time ten o’clock rolled around, the crowd was thick and driving, as the monitors started the traditional HBO static. If you haven’t yet watched Sonic Highways, it’s something you need to see. From the Jazz Age of Ellington, to the rise of Go-Go and the bounce beat, to the Revolution Summer and the rise of DC Hardcore. Out of all of that, director Dave Grohl said, came the Foo Fighters.

It was an hour-long love letter to the DC of Grohl’s youth, the grittier, harder DC. A place where bands had to forge their own record labels to build an audience, a place where the hard scrabble of work met up with the idealism of the Capitol to influence style. From Minor Threat to Bad Brains, to all of the little single season bands that came and went like butterflies. Shirlington’s Inner Ear Studio was the venue for this episode’s recording session, where Dischord Records defined the iconic sound of 1980s punk music. The story of its owner and engineer, Don Zientara, is interwoven with the musical history of the District.

After the episode’s conclusion, the Foo Fighters took the stage and played an energetic three-hour set that spanned their twenty-year history and pretty much their entire catalog. They lead off with the first track off Sonic Highways and focused on the Chicago metro area. They followed with extended versions of The Pretender, New Way Home and Up In Arms and an extra long version of Arlandria, named for the neighborhood along Four Mile Run on the border between Alexandria and Arlington where Grohl once lived. 

RDGLDGRN at Black Cat with Foo Fighters

All Photos by Tom Bridge, Used with Permission

No one’s going to hold up Foo Fighters as if they defined an entire genre out of whole cloth, or as a groundbreaking effort, they’re not that sort of band. What they are is a damned fine group of entertainers. You need only look to drummer Taylor Hawkins, who played Friday night as if he was the living embodiment of the Muppets’ Animal. His frenetic play and mastery of his craft was absolutely electric on stage. Hawkins would take the lead on covers of Cheap Trick and David Bowie & Queen that Grohl would call reminiscent of the better art of the Springfield Keg Party band. Grohl bounced between showman and rocker, sometimes being nostalgic for the Springfield Keg Parties of his youth where, as he put it, “lesser musicians interpreted the greats”. That was shortly before they played David Bowie and Queen’s Under Pressure.

Probably my favorite moment of the night was Grohl calling up local band RDGLDGRN to the stage to make sure that everyone could do the chop in the middle of a gallop beat/bounce beat rendition of Monkey Wrench that I’m pretty sure has never been done before, and may never get done again. While the predominantly white crowd tried their damnedest, no one was mistaking the Black Cat for a Go-Go on Friday night, but that didn’t matter. 

When I was 21, and finishing college in Ohio, I took a trip with my college radio station to New York for the CMJ festival. Shows, showcases, panels, all the good stuff, set against the megalopolis’ backdrop. The weekend smelled like hot garbage, the feast of San Gennaro, and it sounded like punk rock, rock n roll, and stuff too weird to categorize. What I remember from that weekend are two things: the diavolo sauce at Umberto’s Clam House is too hot for human mouths, and the Foo Fighters’ show at Bowery Ballroom. I also determined I’d never, ever want to live in New York.

That Foos show stuck with me, not just because it was hard to get in, but because I saw someone who did what he loved, did it well, and could have a good time doing it. I saw a lot of workman-like sets at CMJ, I saw more still at the Newport in Columbus, where bands would play meaningless sets with no drive or passion. I thought that was just an Ohio thing, but CMJ proved to me that the dead-eyed musician wasn’t something limited to the Buckeye state. When I moved to DC, I was petrified I was going to see more of the same. I was thankfully wrong.

What I did see on Friday, though, was a crowd that loves this city the way that Grohl does, and that shared environment that makes this place unique. There’s no question of The Black Cat’s place in rock history, but the places that DC Punk called home are long since gone and demolished to make way for a DC that the 1980s wouldn’t even recognize. Gone are the brutalist buildings of the 60s, and the older buildings that the riots ran down, and the 70s modern that’s made way for the cranes and the backhoes of the late 90s and mid 2000s. Places like the old 9:30 Club on F Street, The Bayou, and dc space are long gone. 

I’m anxious to hear the rest of Sonic Highways as the first two songs have woven in historical elements of note both into the lyrics and into the musical structure. This is the sort of ethnomusicology that I find fascinating, and that some mark with terms like “cultural appropriation”. It’s clear from the episode this week that Grohl and Big Tony from Troublefunk go back a ways, as Grohl threw a party for Troublefunk at 9:30 Club early this year, and I would argue that, if anything, Foo Fighters is working to elevate the profile of Go-Go for additional attention. My main wish is that Grohl had done this years ago before Chuck Brown had passed, as while I enjoyed Troublefunk’s contributions, Chuck Brown’s would have been a next level grab for them.

There has been a lot of (earned) criticism of the last two albums from the Foos, that neither carried enough weight to have been from the band that gave us “There Is Nothing Left To Lose” and “The Colour and The Shape” which were triumphant pieces of both good writing and rock engineering. That is not something that I can attribute to either of the tracks that we’ve heard from Sonic Highways. If they’re indicative of the rest of the album, it looks like the Foo Fighters are back to their old selves. That’s a welcome development. Look for them to play a large arena show next year (RFK stadium perhaps, given the picture of them with DC United Jerseys with #15? That would be excellent.) and I look forward to seeing them play again.

As the three hour set drew to a close, with one song left to go before last call, I wondered if Grohl would make Everlong the final song of the night. I was right. He’d done it before in New York, jumping down off the stage to play amid the crowd. Maybe it’s age and experience, maybe it’s better security, he played from the stage this time. It was no less poignant. “Everlong” was one of the Foos first hits, and Grohl credits the song with the longevity of the Foo Fighters, and much of its DNA.

At the chorus, Grohl wonders aloud, “If everything could ever feel this real forever / if anything could ever be this good again”. 

For me, fifteen years after that New York show, the answer was a resounding yes.

Taylor Hawkins fronts the Foos for a cover of Cheap Trick

Speaking of DC Punk history, tonight, at The Passenger, Brian Baker (Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, Minor Threat), Brendan Canty (Deathfix, Fugazi, Rites of Spring) and John Davis (Title Tracks, Q and not U) are holding an event at The Passenger and Warehouse Theater, with DJ sets from each, to help build the DC Punk Archives. Admission is $5, or a piece of DC Punk Scene to be donated to the event (posters, records, zines, flyers, set lists, t-shirts, that sort of thing), and there will be cocktails from Tom and Derek Brown. 

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It’s Not Over Yet. Don’t Give Up On The Nationals. http://www.welovedc.com/2014/10/05/its-not-over-yet-dont-give-up-on-the-nationals/ http://www.welovedc.com/2014/10/05/its-not-over-yet-dont-give-up-on-the-nationals/#comments Sun, 05 Oct 2014 20:29:17 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98417

It’s hard to come to terms with a loss like last night’s epic 18-inning marathon that ended in tears for most Nats fans. A 2-1 loss is never easy to take, especially in the playoffs. I can’t blame you for leaving in the cold last night, I can’t blame you for waking up with a sense of existential dread about Game 3 on Monday afternoon, and I most certainly can’t blame you for wanting to give up now and wanting to go home and forget about baseball until March.

But you shouldn’t do that. Not yet. Not until the last out of the last game is recorded and the season is truly over. There are all kinds of reasons not to give up. Here are a few. 

  1. Since July, when their season began to come together, the Nationals have only lost three in a row just once. In that same span, the Nationals have put together three or more wins five times. In that same span, the Giants have lost three in a row six times, and won three or more in a row four times. 
  2. The hurlers for the Nationals have been nothing short of outstanding. They’ve given up just 5 runs in 27 innings pitched, for an ERA of 1.33. They have a WHIP of 0.926. These numbers are nothing short of amazing for the baseball that we’ve seen. The pitching hasn’t been an issue, and anyone who’s upset at them can calm right down. In a playoffs where we’ve seen the aces from the Cardinals, Dodgers, Royals, A’s and Angels fall apart around them, the Nationals’ rotation and bullpen have been exquisite. 
  3. When the Nats break out of a funk, they do it with authority. After a rough stretch in late July and early August, they piled on the Phillies for 15 runs in two games. Granted, both were in the Nats’ confines at home, but one need only look at that intense Dodgers series in September to see how they can do well in a hostile environment. 
  4. When the Nats get hot, they are a juggernaut of their own. Look at that magnificent 14 inning victory over the NL West champion Dodgers, which came in the midst of a long road trip.

I’ve seen a lot of head-in-hands moments on the replays from last night’s games, and I get it. Baseball is, if nothing else, constant and unrelenting failure crowned with moments of sheer panic and joy, and choosing to despair in the face of overwhelming odds is pretty well normal. But that doesn’t mean you have to stay despairing in the intervening time. Kick yourself free of the emotional hangover today, 

There are plenty of good reasons not to feel the existential dread ahead of Game Three. It’s better to go in feeling hopeful than it is to dread every pitch. In the 2001 ALDS, the Oakland A’s went up 2-0 and were swept at the Coliseum and lost the deciding game at Yankee Stadium. It hurts me to remember that one, as I grew up an A’s fan, and I was on the wrong side of that one, but it happened, and the Yankees rallied back from the brink to bring it home to their fans.

This team is easily as good as those 2001 Yankees, and the crowds at AT&T Park will be no less imposing than those A’s fans were then.

Take heart, Nats fans.

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Nats top Braves, clinch second division title in 3 years http://www.welovedc.com/2014/09/17/nats-top-braves-clinch-second-division-title-in-3-years/ Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:28:05 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98336 Mediacademie 2014 Sep 16

Photo courtesy of the Nationals

It’s going to take weeks for MASN’s Dan Kolko to smell anything except Miller Lite.

The most unremarkable of wins is absolutely the most remarkable. After the Nationals topped the Braves in a 3-0 game that was closer than the score, the Nationals left their spikes in the hallway, and celebrated their second division title in three years. With a 12 and a half game lead on the National League East Division, and 12 games remaining, their position in the postseason is secure. All they have to play for now is home field advantage, something first year manager Matt Williams is keen to acquire.

There are still a dozen to play, and the Dodgers are just a game and a half behind the Nationals in pursuit of that number one position, so don’t expect the Nationals to cruise their way into October. There may be more games off for veterans and rookies alike, but don’t expect anything but a relentless drive toward the postseason. It’s clear there’s unfinished business here for the Nationals.

Tanner Roark and Aaron Harang had traded five inning of shutout ball, parrying challenge after challenge. Harang would blink first, giving up a walk to Jayson Werth, followed by a mammoth home run blast off the bat of Ian Desmond to put that Nats up 2-0. 

Roark went seven strong, bringing his total on the season to 192 and a third innings, during which he’s allowed a 1.10 WHIP, with an ERA of 2.85. Roark’s 20th quality start of the year brought him his 14th win. Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen pitched perfect 8th and 9th innings, and then it was celebration time.

While the corks flew, and while Matt Williams quoted Robert Frost, fans across the city were rejoicing in bars, homes and on social media. While it was a disappointment not to clinch the playoffs at home in front of tens of thousands at Nationals Park, clinching it in Atlanta after some early season struggles against them has meaning for many. 

During the postgame celebration, for which Dan Kolko has to win some sort of award, there was a lot of discussion of what this season has meant to those playing day in and day out. At one point, Denard Span got very sober in front of the camera and thanked the Lerner Family and Mike Rizzo for bringing him to Washington where he’s been able to play to his potential, and it was a very touching moment, but the reverie was short-lived as someone turned a champagne bottle and a couple of beers on Span and Kolko.

This was a recurring theme of the evening, with Kolko asking great questions, only to be interrupted by the celebrating players with cold beer. In fact, there are some absolutely brilliant vines of this exact thing. My deepest respect to Kolko for doing a hard job well under very difficult conditions.

I really do hope that he can smell something other than Miller Lite today.

The Nationals return home on Tuesday for their final homestand of 2014 before the playoffs. October baseball is returning to Washington.

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Nationals top Braves 6-4, reduce magic number to 10 http://www.welovedc.com/2014/09/09/nationals-top-braves-6-4-reduce-magic-number-to-10/ Wed, 10 Sep 2014 02:45:06 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98295

With just scant weeks remaining in the season, the Nationals reduced their magic number to ten, and increased their divisional lead to nine games – the largest span for any team in the NL East this season to date – in a 6-4 victory over the Braves in front of 29,233 at Nationals Park. 

The first inning of the Nationals game tonight was something out of a Bosch painting for the Atlanta Braves. After struggling against Jordan Zimmermann in the top half of the inning, the hits just kept coming against starter Ervin Santana. The Nationals would bat around in the bottom of the first, scoring four runs on five hits, with the only outs coming on a pair of sacrifices and a ground-out from the pitcher.

One could easily say that Santana was nibbled to death by ducks by the Nationals’ offense, but they had helped from some lackluster defensive moments, as well. A two-base throwing error by catcher Christian Bethancourt allowed Werth to advance to third and then score on a subsequent single by Adam LaRoche in the second inning. Manager Matt Williams would laud the Nats’ aggressive approach at the plate in his post-game press conference. “The thing I liked about it was, it wasn’t via the homer… It was hitting the ball back up the middle, the other way… That’s a good thing.”

The Braves were not without teeth tonight, scoring a pair in the fourth, and another pair in the sixth, with defensive failures by the Nationals costing them each time. 

With Jordan Zimmermann’s day done after six innings of four run baseball, the Nationals turned to a committee of bullpen relief to finish out the game. Aaron Barrett hurled a 7-pitch 1-2-3 7th inning before coming back to start the 8th. After giving up a double former National Emilio Bonifacio and getting Phil Gosselin to ground out, Matt Williams turned to his bullpen to face the heart of the Braves order. Freddie Freeman, who is hitting just over .500 against the Nationals’ staff this year, was cashiered by Ross Detwiler. Justin Upton, who supplied two of the Braves’ runs in the sixth with a monster home run. 

Closer-apparent Drew Storen came in for the ninth, and notched his third save in three days after replacing Soriano in the position. He was devastatingly effective tonight, retiring Heyward, Johnson and Bethancourt on just seven pitches, bringing his 3-day total to 42. Per Matt Williams, he will not be pitching in Wednesday’s mid-afternoon tilt, but Tyler Clippard had the night off tonight and would be ready to fill that gap.

Ian Desmond departed the game in the fifth inning with lower back tightness, which he brought to the team’s attention this morning and became more bothersome as the game continued on. He is expected to return to the lineup for the afternoon game Wednesday.

With tonight’s win, the Nationals draw ever closer to their second division title in three years, and there are a lot of reasons to be a very excited Nats fan. If you’ve got the chance, cut out of work a little early on Wednesday and go see these guys play.

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Nats win a wild one, notch seventh straight win http://www.welovedc.com/2014/08/19/nats-win-a-wild-one-notch-seventh-straight-win/ Tue, 19 Aug 2014 11:49:55 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98164

Jordan Zimmermann had thrown 39 pitches through 4 innings. It took just an hour and a half to make it through six frames of baseball on Monday night. The Nationals were moving with expediency through the Arizona lineup. And then it happened. With the Nats having just retaken the lead in the bottom of the seventh, 2-1, Zimmermann was left in just one batter too many, and the tables had turned again.

Diamondbacks’ Shortstop Didi Gregorius, having a stellar night on the infield, rocketed a pitch into the bullpen and that was that for the Nats hurler. While Steve McCatty had worked to give Zimmermann’s relief time to get warm, and a baserunner provided ample opportunity for throws to first to stay the game’s progress, manager Matt Williams let Zimmermann stay out there one batter too many on Monday night.

If you had to find fault with Matt Williams’ first year as a skipper, and with the team 6 games up on the Division and 17 games over .500, you might be stretching to do so, it would be with his bullpen management. Tonight was no exception to that occasional issue, and the rest of the pen would give him reason to continue that doubt. Though Matt Thornton would retire all 3 batters he faced after relieving Zimmermann, Tyler Clippard would blow his fourth save in the ninth, and Craig Stammen would have to pitch himself out of a massive jam (self-inflicted) in the eleventh inning.

The Nats’ offense came alive late on Monday, having been silent through six innings, and facing a 1-0 deficit, relied on their power to generate some runs. In the seventh, Wilson Ramos absolutely crushed a home run to the deepest part of the park to put the Nationals up 2-1, ahead of Zimmermann’s melt down. That wouldn’t be the end of it for Washington, though, as the 1-2 combination of Span and Rendon smacked a stand-up double followed with a head-first slide triple to tie the ballgame at three. Jayson Werth would sacrifice Rendon in to give the Nats back the lead in the bottom of the eighth.

Tyler Clippard, in his first save situation in months, was doing just fine, right up until he left a fastball right down Broadway for David Peralta, who responded by clubbing the ball off the fascia in right. Clippard would recover and give up no more ground, but Nats fans can be forgiven for clutching their chests on Monday for the third straight day as the bullpen worked. 

Nats fans can be doubly forgiven for pouring an extra bourbon during the top of the 11th. Craig Stammen was on in relief, and the bases ended up juiced on a pair of walks and a single. Steve McCatty sauntered to the mound to have a word with his pitcher, and whatever he said worked. Stammen got Lamb and Gregorius on gutty strikeouts, and forced a ground out from the pinch hitter Pennington.

It looked like the game was destined for more than 11 innings, as Span and Rendon were retired in order to start the bottom half, but Adam LaRoche delivered his first career walkoff in the form of a 407 foot shot off the second deck in right. 

The Nats had a high-leverage night for their bullpen, and it’s the third straight day they’ve had more than just mop-up work to do. Here’s hoping that Strasburg can turn in a good night, and the bats strike early for the Nationals, giving the relief crew a bit of a respite.

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Theatrics not revelatory of drama, Nationals on a roll. http://www.welovedc.com/2014/08/18/theatrics-not-revelatory-of-drama-nationals-on-a-roll/ Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:16:23 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=98162

Twice this weekend, the Nationals won in dramatic late-inning fashion. Saturday night, they put a late rally together, having been shut out for the first seven innings, forcing a blown save against the Pirates’ setup man. Adam LaRoche picked up a clutch home run in the eighth, and Bryce Harper’s hustle was crucial in the 9th to cement the victory.

Sunday, the Nationals would repeat the come from behind routine in a game where the win probability chart looked more like a rollercoaster at Six Flags than your typical WPC. What began as a pitchers’ duel, would turn into an intense tit-for-tat. The Pirates would force some errors from the infield, before the Nationals would do the same just an inning later. The Pirates would get to closer Rafael Soriano, working his fourth appearance in five days, and go up 5-4. 

Ordinarily, the story here is “local sports team can’t overcome lousy performance by key member of the lineup.” 

Had the game ended there after the ninth, that would’ve been the narrative device employed by a lot of the media, complete with quotes absolving that performance from coaching staff members, and supportive quotes from teammates. This is how things would have gone had the Nationals not turned it around in the 9th to force extra innings, where they played clutch baseball and eked out a win over the Pirates 6-5.

These late-inning theatrics show a team that’s capable of overcoming the adversity of a 162-game schedule, a team that’s ready to face the grueling challenges of August, September and everything after. 

Some may lament a team that needs to come back from a deficit; no one likes it when a team with high expectations has to battle to live up to them. I would suggest that those fans are living in some sort of peculiar mirror world where baseball is a simple game like checkers or parcheesi, not a grueling sport where three hours games require laser-like focus, and where even the most talented of athletes fail more than they succeed in given situations.

Come from behind wins are the hallmark of a team that has come together into a cohesive whole, cognizant of the every day challenges of the game, and who find reasons and ways to succeed amid the difficulty. This Nationals team is so deep that it can beat you in so many different ways it may not matter if they’re not batting 1.000 and striking out the side with impunity. It’s hard for me to find the excitement in a perfect team the way you find it inone that can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

To borrow language from Bull Durham, “Strikeouts are boring, and beside that, they’re fascist.” This isn’t a team that will beat you the same way every time, dominating you in every situation, they’re going to be the team that beats you when you make even the smallest mistake, and the Pirates learned that the hard way this weekend.

Look for these late inning theatrics to continue, and revel in them, Nats fans, for they are the hallmark of a team ready for the postseason, and a team that treats their success not as a given, but as something they must work for, must strive for, and achieve through strength of will and perseverance. Don’t find fault because they weren’t perfect, find success in overcoming that fault, and triumphing regardless.

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Nationals cruise to 13-0 victory over Cubs http://www.welovedc.com/2014/07/05/nationals-cruise-to-13-0-victory-over-cubs/ Sun, 06 Jul 2014 00:27:34 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97877

Early this morning, the Chicago Cubs completed a five-player trade with the Oakland Athletics, sending their announced Saturday afternoon starter Jeff Samardzija to the Oakland Athletics. While Samardzija has a 2-7 record, his 2.83 ERA, 103 strikeouts and 1.20 WHIP are exactly the reason that the A’s were looking to add him to their starting rotation. His absence in Washington was absolutely noted as the Nationals put together 13 runs on 19 hits in an absolutely dominant performance of offensive superiority matched with a pitching outing from Gio Gonzalez that was nothing short of superlative.

Gonzalez threw eight scoreless innings against the Cubs, scattering four hits, and striking out seven. With his off speed pitches working the zone, his pinpoint fastball control completely stymied the little bears. After the game, Manager Matt Williams would point to Gonzalez using all his pitches effectively, calling this a “good sign” in his recovery process. Gonzalez’s 109 pitches isn’t a season high, but is his longest performance since coming off the disabled list. He has now put together 22 straight innings of scoreless mound mastery, something that had eluded Gonzalez during the early season. Williams was quick to point out that his next start will be a challenge, as it will be his first start after such a long outing, and much will depend on Gonzalez’s workouts over the next four games.

There was no part of the Nationals offense that didn’t work today. Every National starter got a hit today (including Gio) and every starter save one (Harper) scored at least one run. Anthony Rendon lead the way with a stellar day, going 3-for-4 with a walk, three doubles, three runs and a pair of RBI. Jayson Werth followed right behind, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBI. Ryan Zimmerman lead the Nats lineup with 3 RBI, going 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles. 

The late spring’s injuries now past the opening day lineup, today’s Nationals squad was brutal to what remained of the Cubs bullpen, starting with Carlos Villanueva. Nueva would last just 2 full innings plus three batters, surrendering four runs in 12 batters. Zimmerman, Harper and Desmond would combine for a run in the second, and then a roustabout third inning would see ten men come to the plate. Anthony Rendon would hit the first of three doubles, followed by an RBI double for Jayson Werth, a fielder’s choice for LaRoche that put Werth at third just ahead of a tag. Ryan Zimmerman hit the first of his two doubles with runners at the corners, and Ian Desmond and Wilson Ramos would each add an RBI single before a sacrifice and a groundout would end the inning as the Nationals put a six spot up on the Cubs to take a 7-0 lead.

The Nats would get two more in the 6th, off the strength of five hits from the middle of the lineup. In the seventh, they would tack on four more runs as the Cubs bullpen would further implode. Ramos would lead with a double to the right field corner, followed by a Gio Gonzalez single (becoming the last of the Nationals’ starters to grab a hit, and all but Harper would score a run), before Anthony Rendon plow his 3rd double of the day. Filling in late for Adam LaRoche, Kevin Frandsen would get an RBI single, ahead of Ryan Zimmerman’s two-run double.

Anthony Rendon looks to be the leading candidate for the Nationals to send to the All-Star Game as a replacement, as he now leads the Nationals in Slugging Percentage at .489, going ahead of LaRoche’s .486, and while he’s not leading in average, his Tony Two-Bags routine with 21 doubles in 82 games bests his rookie performance. Were I to pick an offensive MVP for the day, though, that honor goes to Zimmerman who went 4-for-5 with 3 RBI, with two doubles. Gio Gonzalez gets the clear MVP slot of the day, though, with his eight innings of absolutely crushing baseball, extending his scoreless streak to 22 innings.

The Nationals face the Cubs for one more on Sunday afternoon at 1:35, with Jordan Zimmermann facing off with Jake Arrieta, before a four-game home-and-home series with AL East-leading Baltimore starting Monday night.

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Nationals split series with Atlanta on 3-1 win, Roark’s pitching http://www.welovedc.com/2014/06/22/nationals-split-series-with-atlanta-on-3-1-win-roarks-pitching/ Sun, 22 Jun 2014 21:05:28 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97708

The Nationals split a crucial mid-season series against their division rival Atlanta Braves with a win on Sunday in front of just a hair under 40,000 fans present. The 3-1 win put them 1.5 games up on the Braves, and 2.5 games up on the Marlins. While concerns remain against the Nationals’ effectiveness in extra innings games and against the Braves (3-7) as a whole, the Nationals did put up a 4-2 homestand before heading on the road to face the NL Central-leading Brewers.

From the beginning, the Nationals pushed hard against Ervin Santana, and put together a walk and two singles to get their first run in the bottom of the first. Anthony Rendon’s 5-pitch walk was followed by singles from struggling Jayson Werth and surging Adam LaRoche. Ryan Zimmerman would join the RBI party with a deep sacrifice fly to center to give the Nationals a rare 2-0 lead.

Sandy Leon, giving Lobaton a break behind the plate, came up with a solid single to start the Nationals’ half of the fifth inning, catching Freddie Freeman off the hand. After a laborious sacrifice bunt from Roark, Denard Span (now besting Werth in both batting average and slugging percentage) would gather the RBI on a double and make it 3-1. The Nationals would put up an insurance run in the 8th off a double by Anthony Rendon, a groundout from Jayson Werth, and a wild pitch from Luis Avilan that brought Rendon home.  

Tanner Roark put a solid effort in through five innings, but his sixth inning was off the rails. After 20 batters, Roark had thrown 17 first pitch strikes and put up a solid effort. In the sixth, though, all bets were off. A single from Freddie Freeman was followed by a five-pitch walk to Evan Gattis. Justin Upton would park a single to left and end the young starter’s day. At times, Roark was challenged by control, just missing his paint-the-corners targets. He surrendered three walks, and scattered three other hits to go 5 and 1/3 innings, his ERA dropping to 2.79. The Braves wouldn’t put up a fight against Craig Stammen, Tyler Clippard or Rafael Soriano, going down in order after the bullpen took over.

That’s not to say the Braves wouldn’t put up a fight, though, both Chris Johnson and Justin Upton put up a fight against umpires Tim Welke and Mark Carlson. Both were ejected after questioning 3rd strikes.  Manager Fredi Gonzalez also sent in his objections, though he used a certain scatalogical term a few times less than Upton or Johnson.

Afterwards, skipper Matt Williams spoke with reporters, praising Roark’s tenacity despite a few calls that didn’t go his way that might have ended early, citing his strength in adaptability, demonstrated throughout the season. Roark’s ability to hit the first strike was key to his victory today, according to Williams. 

Matt Williams also spoke about some of the narratives that are recurring concerning the Nationals and the Braves, and the Cardinals, to name two teams that have had the Nats’ number this season so far. “I’ve been around the game awhile, the next time we play them, the questions will come. It doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t to [the Nationals], we want to win tomorrow’s game…that’s as far as they look.”  This is a refreshingly healthy attitude, given the tendency for teams and players to dwell on the previous failings and successes, instead of preparing for each of the games with no regard to the superstitions. 

The Nationals head to the road with two of their top bats slumping in Desmond and Werth, and both are due an off-day to let their rest and recuperate, including their mental faculties, Williams was quick to say. Fortunately, though, others are sparking off, with Denard Span (6-for-17) and Danny Espinosa (5-for-14 against ATL) surging forward. After Milwaukee, the Nationals head to Chicago for four games against the cellar-dwelling Cubs at Wrigley, including a double-entry doubleheader next Saturday. 

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Nats complete sweep of Phillies on strength of Fister, LaRoche http://www.welovedc.com/2014/06/05/nats-complete-sweep-of-phillies-on-strength-of-fister-laroche/ Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:25:32 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97592

There are few things more satisfying than beating the Phillies. Doing it to move back over .500 and complete a sweep, though, that has to count for something. The Nationals’ offense came alive in the series against Philadelphia, as the Nationals pounded their neighbor to the north to the tune of 19-6 across three games. The Thursday afternoon match-up was no different than the rest of the series, as the Nationals gave up a run early, fought back to even, then went ahead for good in the fifth on the bat of Adam LaRoche. 

The Nationals’ second sweep of the season featured some stellar performances from their starters, who combined for 20 strikeouts in 3 games, and surrendered just a single walk, across 22 innings. Doug Fister’s fifth start for the Nationals was fairly stellar as he went seven full innings, giving up two runs on four hits, striking out five and walking none. Where he really shone, though, was in the defensive efforts. At one point early in the afternoon, Fister reminded everyone that he used to play first base, and found himself in ballet splits to attempt the completion of a double play. 

Doug Fister's Splits

Tyler Clippard and Rafael Soriano pitched two perfect innings in relief to pick up a hold and a save respectively, and the Nationals moved to within a game of the lead in the oddly weak National League East. With Atlanta off for travel, the Nationals are in third place behind the Marlins and Braves, both tied for the division lead at the moment. 

After the game, Manager Matt Williams was quick to point out that they have a hard road trip ahead of them, with three games in San Diego (27-33), four in San Francisco (38-21), and three in St. Louis (31-29). Williams said that while this was a great series, there are some serious opponents waiting on the road. Asked if this was a test of the club, Williams was cagey, suggesting that while it may be a test, it wouldn’t be a deciding factor in the season as a whole. 

In addition to the great starting pitching against Philadelphia, the Nationals benefited from leadoff hitter Denard Span’s excellent series, where he went 6-14, with five runs scored, and Ryan Zimmerman’s return, going 4-9 with 2 RBI. The Nationals’ offense has struggled at times due to injury, and the return of LaRoche and Zimmerman over the past series have put the Nationals on a 5-1 tear, with a +26 run differential against Texas and Philadelphia.

The Nationals will return to DC to face Houston and Atlanta starting June 17th.

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We Love Weekends May 30 – June 1 http://www.welovedc.com/2014/05/30/we-love-weekends-may-30-june-1/ Fri, 30 May 2014 11:41:52 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97545

Tom: I am so ready for this weekend. Short weeks are always murder on my schedule, and weeks with jury duty are the same and this week was both! Amazing! Anyhow, this weekend looks to be about perfect, and that means I’m headed out on my bike. This weekend I’ll be taking Charlie down to Tour de Fat at Yards Park, as the bike festivals in DC are always a good time. Hopefully we won’t need a support vehicle. Sunday we’ll be heading to the Nats game to see if the Nationals have any spark this year or if they’re bound for another year of suffering.

Rachel: After a much needed night of rest and Netflix on Friday — and perhaps a quick pit stop at The Front Page for a lil’ happy hour action before — my weekend will include a stop off at Nats Park as they face the Texas Rangers and then a sweet jam session on Sunday as part of my FIRST Flashband experience. I signed up for the June Flashband project because the theme is “The Seven Songs of Country Music” and I freaking love country. So — if you like country too and wanna checkout this whole Flashband thing, be sure to stop by Hill Country Live on Sunday June 29!

Fedward:  A convergence of events means we’re babysitting the Niecelets the same weekend that Sunny and Licorice (directed by none other than the Social Chair) opens, so we’re taking them on Saturday.  If you’ve got young kids (target ages 2-5, but all are welcome) this odd couple of orangutans should be just the ticket.  The show runs through June 14 so you’ve got plenty of opportunity to see it. Hashtag shameless plug. After babysitting duty ends Sunday evening we’ll head to the Passenger for a much needed brunch.

Joe: Is it really time to mow the lawn again? I should have read the fine print in that new home ownership manual more closely. Hopefully, I’ll be done in time to head over to RFK Lot 8 on Saturday afternoon to join the Screaming Eagles for the best tailgate in town (seriously). Then it’s time to root against the hated Sporks, also known as Sporting Kansas City as they take on the DC United at 7 p.m. A win moves the United into 2nd place in their conference — a huge step forward from last year’s disaster of a season. On Sunday, we’re hoping to finally make it over to the National Gallery of Art to see the Garry Winogrand photography exhibit before it leaves town June 8.

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At the Quarter Season Mark, Nationals Struggling But Not Out http://www.welovedc.com/2014/05/18/at-the-quarter-season-mark-nationals-struggling-but-not-out/ Mon, 19 May 2014 02:19:27 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97428

With Gio Gonzalez bound for the disabled list with inflammation in his shoulder, he joins Ryan Zimmerman, Adam LaRoche, Bryce Harper, Doug Fister (returned), Wilson Ramos (returned) as part of the Nationals’ squad of walking wounded at the quarter-season mark. After 42 games, the only welcome surprise is that the Nationals are over .500 and just half a game back of the slumping Atlanta Braves.

Fortunately for Nationals fans, however, this is a team with flexible roles and a lot of “spare parts” that have blunted the pace of injuries visited upon the starting lineup. Usually, this is where I’d start looking for patterns in the injuries, hoping to find some clear path of neglect or overuse, but on that front, you just have to admit that the Nationals have been cursed/snakebit/deeply unlucky. Zimmerman, Ramos and Harper were each injured in standard plays that just went badly awry. Fister had a slow start related to an early season strain, and LaRoche’s quad strain is, at least according to the man himself, feeling “shockingly” good. While the jury’s still out on the severity of Gio’s shoulder trouble, at least this looks like dumb luck and not a horrific trend.

So what’s working right now? As of Sunday, Tyler Clippard has 9 2/3 innings of scoreless ball, representing a much-needed rebound for the Nationals’ bullpen. His early appearances were the source of agita for Matt Williams and Nationals’ fans alike, so a return to his usual level of singular dominance has been excellent. Jayson Werth’s veteran presence in the outfield has been nothing short of spectacular. He’s played in every game – one of just three Nats to do so (Rendon and Desmond are the other two) – and has an .835 OPS to show for the experience.

Tanner Roark’s WHIP of 1.095 after eight starts is nothing to turn up your nose at. While his 3-1 record is tied with Jordan Zimmermann for best record on the Nats, his 20 runs allowed is the lowest on the staff. After just 9 starts, Stephen Strasburg has 70 strikeouts – on pace for more than 300 on the year – which shows that his fastball/changeup 1-2 punch can be utterly dumbfounding for the opposition, and he’s just 6 back of the league lead. 

And what’s not quite working so well? While the bench has performed admirably, especially Danny Espinosa, there are some real problems with the Nationals’ state of play in the field. Ian Desmond has reverted to earlier form at short, making errors of commission that most other shortstops would let through for hits, and that’s something that’s going to have to be fixed. What that means for the young infielder is less than clear at this time. Desmond’s also had a slow start at the plate, and that certainly can’t help his focus.

With Harper out, the Nationals have turned to Nate McLouth and Kevin Frandsen in left. If you’re confused by the concept of infielders playing outfield, welcome to modern baseball, where the rules are made up and the positions don’t matter! But in all seriousness, trading Harper’s exuberant and athletic defense in left for McLouth’s bat and Frandsen’s quick adaptation process is a downgrade of serious concern. In addition the Nationals’ offense is once again in Feast or Famine mode. In aggregate, they stand in the middle of the pack for rush scored and runs allowed, but have been shutout three times, and held to two runs or less in a third of their contests thus far, and have scored more than 5 runs in a third of their game (winning all but one). 

Where are the improvements going to come from? Well, to start, none of the injuries we’ve seen from the 2014 Nationals are season-enders. Ryan Zimmerman is due back in the coming weeks, and though there’s talk of him taking over in left until Harper is healthy, he won’t be the worst Nationals they’ve run out to that position. It’s a warning, in part, to Denard Span, who’s struggled in the leadoff slot. We know Harper’s got the range to play center, and it’s entirely possible that if Zimmerman is hitting, and Span isn’t, an outfield of Zimmerman, Harper and Werth is entirely possible. Zimmerman surely couldn’t be any worse than Michael Morse was. 

As Doug Fister readapts to the big leagues, he will be a vast improvement over the early struggles of Taylor Jordan, and barring another injury, that upgrade will be substantial. A full set of starters will make the bullpen’s job substantially easier, as well. 

This is a ball club that’s still in the thick of it, despite losing their best bat so far this season, their youngest phenom, the face of the franchise, their newest starting pitcher and their power stroke catcher. When you look at their result – half a game back of first, three games over .500, it’s hard to see anything but the potential upside of a healthy squad.

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Two Tickets to Marketplace, Pack Your Bags and Leave Tonight http://www.welovedc.com/2014/04/23/two-tickets-to-marketplace-pack-your-bags-and-leave-tonight/ http://www.welovedc.com/2014/04/23/two-tickets-to-marketplace-pack-your-bags-and-leave-tonight/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:56:16 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=97164 29prolu jpg

If I had to pick one public radio program that I could not live without, it actually wouldn’t be any of the ones produced by NPR at all. It would be American Public Media’s Marketplace hosted by Kai Ryssdal, which airs on WAMU at 6:00pm on weeknights. Full of witty and smart banter about the financial world, this is one program that makes you a helluva lot smarter at the end of the day.

Marketplace has taken their show on the road, and they’re doing an episode of Marketplace live at Strathmore tomorrow night, and we’ve got two tickets to give away. Enter below using your name and email and leave a comment, and we’ll close the contest tomorrow at 12pm, and notify the winner immediately. If you’d rather, though, we’ve also got access to a few half-price tickets as well, so click through if you are looking for a deal.

This show promises to be a real fun one and will feature Kai Ryssdal, weekend host Lizzie O’Leary, and regular reporters Rob Schmitz, Adriene Hill, Stacey Vanek Smith and Paddy Hirsch, and there will be a live interview with Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff, and Congressional Budget Director Douglas Elmendorf.

Marketplace Live
Thursday, April 24th at 7pm
Strathmore Center
Bethesda, MD

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Nationals win see-saw battle with Marlins 10-7 http://www.welovedc.com/2014/04/10/nationals-win-see-saw-battle-with-marlins-10-7/ Thu, 10 Apr 2014 04:22:02 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96994

It wasn’t Jordan Zimmermann’s night tonight, but it ended up not mattering. The Nationals’ pre-season ace was haggard tonight in just 1 2/3 innings pitched, surrendering 5 runs on 7 hits and a pair of walks. The outing was definitely the worst Zimmermann’s career, and from the start he just didn’t look fresh. Perhaps it was the aftermath of his flu from the previous week, perhaps it was just a rare off night, but manager Matt Williams was quick with the hook and turned to his long man.

Craig Stammen for 3 1/3 innings of solid work scattering a pair of hits and a walk. Ross Detwiler skated through the sixth with ease, giving the Nats’ offense a chance to make their mark. They would begin their comeback on a Bryce Harper home run – a long overdue towering blast that landed eight rows back in the upper deck over the Robinson sign. Though the call was reviewed, it hooked clearly around the foul pole, moving the Nats to within 2. Anthony Rendon started the fifth with a leadoff triple, and came in on a 6-3 groundout off the bat of Jayson Werth shortly thereafter. In the sixth, the Nationals would give Ross Detwiler a lead, making the Marlins’ pen pay for some critical mistakes including a rather embarrassing fielding error by Dan Jennings. The Nationals would send eight men to the plate in the sixth, combining small ball tactics and some good luck into a pair of runs and their first lead of the night.

The joy would be short-lived in Natstown, though, as Jarrod Saltalamacchia would start the seventh inning with a moonshot of his own off Drew Storen, tying the game at 6. Christian Yelich, who went 3-4 with a pair of walks, would score the go-ahead run for the Fish in the top of the 8th. Both Storen and Clippard were vulnerable tonight, each giving up an earned run in an inning apiece, despite 4Ks in 9 batters. With most of the bullpen used today, the Nationals will be relying on Stephen Strasburg to go deep into the game tomorrow afternoon. But we’re not there yet. No, this story has had a number of twists and turns so far, but the best is yet to come.

Down 7-6 as the bottom of the 8th inning came around, the Marlins decided to turn tonight’s game from merely a dumpster fire into a full-on rolling dumpster fire, and sent beleaguered yet somehow continually employed Carlos Marmol to the mound. While he managed to retire Jose Lobaton, he would plunk pinch-hitter Nate McLouth on the foot, give up a single and an error to Denard Span, and then inexplicably walk Anthony Rendon to load the bases for Jayson Werth.

I can’t imagine why anyone would look at the Nationals lineup and say, “you know, I think the numbers look good here. Let’s walk Rendon. Sure, he’s on a tear, but have you seen that Werth guy? He’s no good, right? I mean, it’s not like he’s walked four times in nine lifetime at-bats against Marmol, right? Wait, he has? Aw man.”

But someone has to dive on that terrible grenade, and sure enough, tonight it was Marmol. Werth tattooed an 0-1 fastball into the visitors’ pen, making it 10-7, and the Nationals improved to 6-2. Tomorrow’s tilt is a 4:05pm start at Nationals Park for the potential sweep. The Nationals have won their second of three series so far this year, and they did it after a five run deficit in the second. Not too shabby. This the kind of game they won in 2012 on the strength of their pen and their offense. Good to see they’ve got it back for 2014.

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Nats fall to Braves 2-1 in Home Opener http://www.welovedc.com/2014/04/04/nats-fall-to-braves-2-1-in-home-opener/ Fri, 04 Apr 2014 20:53:02 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96920 Nationals Drum Line

Is there anything more wonderful than Opening Day?

The pageantry at Nationals Park celebrating the start of spring and the season is always over the top, and today was no exception. Two of DC’s ladder trucks hoisted a massive American flag over Half Street, a drum line greeted fans as they came from the metro. The red-bedecked masses streamed out of Navy Yard Metro on an overcast Friday morning. An air of optimism was present, and the Braves fans were few and far between. 

Opening Day at Nationals Park

Early on, Jordan Zimmermann, recovering from flu-like symptoms that scratched his start yesterday, was fairly well dominant. His 5-inning performance included nine strikeouts, one walk and just one mistake. It was the Braves’ chance to break through in the top of the fifth, as Mark Gattis obliterated a ball ten rows deep behind the visiting bullpen, but the Braves could not do more than chip the veneer on the just-recovering Jordan Zimmermann.

The Nats looked to have tied the game on a bizarre play to start the bottom of the fifth inning. Ian Desmond laced a ball into the corner, where the ball rolled under the padding on the wall, and while Desmond sprinted around the bases, Jason Heyward threw his hands up and stood around while the ball remained under the padding. Desmond made it in well ahead of the throw. The following confab of umpires delayed the game for several minutes while the Park Avenue Blues reviewed the play for legality, and send Desmond back to second, as Heyward indicated he felt that he was impeded by the padding in the left field corner.

The rule in this situation is 7.05(f) and it reads: “Two bases, if a fair ball bounces or is deflected into the stands outside the first or third base foul lines; or if it goes through or under a field fence, or through or under a scoreboard, or through or under shrubbery or vines on the fence; or if it sticks in such fence, scoreboard, shrubbery or vines;”

It was not clear if the ball was merely resting at the foot of the wall, or if it was truly stuck there. After the game, manager Matt Williams pointed out that Upton was able to quickly recover it from its resting place and throw it in, but not before throwing up his hands. As Williams would note in his comments, no umpire made any indication concerning the disposition of the play. “One of the reasons we have replay is to get the calls right… [3B Umpire Hudson] didn’t make a call. In the heat of the moment…that tells me he didn’t think it was lodged.”

While the ten-minute delay took back what appeared at first to be a home run, it made the crowd situation very hostile when the final call was made and Desmond was sent back to second. Why no umpire made a motion to indicate that the ball was lodged or that Heyward was impeded made matters much worse. Whiy

Desmond would be gunned down during Lobaton’s at-bat attempting to take third, becoming the third National to be thrown out in the first five innings of the game.

In the sixth, the Nats would finally tie the game on a Zimmerman fly ball, marking the first inning since the first the Nats would avoid a TOOTBLAN. Anthony Rendon singled to the begin the rally, was advanced to second on a wall, after which Jayson Werth walked, and Adam LaRoche hit into a fielder’s choice advancing Rendon to third at the cost of Werth, ahead of the Zimmerman sacrifice. While the rally was short-lived, it was enough to put the game back into control.

Craig Stammen came on to relieve Jordan Zimmermann in the fifth, showing that the Nats’ two-long reliever plan was more wisdom than necessity, and Stammen would go on to blank the Braves’ offense for two innings ahead of the traditional 8/9 men. Tyler Clippard would give up a run in the eighth after issuing a leadoff walk to Jason Heyward on a single to Freddie Freeman and a sac fly from Chris Johnson. 

The Nationals would threaten in the eighth inning, putting Rendon and Werth aboard on a single and a walk, before David Carpenter would befuddle, confuse and outright beat Adam LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman and Bryce Harper. Harper (1-4, 2K, TOOTBLAN) had a particularly rough game. Afterwards, asked if Harper was pressing, Williams was quick to defend his player, “Everyone’s pressing. Every day,” taking on the clichéd adjective as a perhaps the wishful thinking of reporters, to his credit.

You never win them all, but you always hope to win Opening Day. This was the Nationals’ first opening day loss since 2011, and their sixth in ten years. They’ll face the Braves again Saturday night at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 1:35. 

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The Nationals in 2014: A Season Prediction http://www.welovedc.com/2014/03/31/the-nationals-in-2014-a-season-prediction/ Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:16:32 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96819

The grind begins today.

The Nationals take the field at 1:05pm against the Mets, having spent last October at home and out of the playoffs, and with all manner of new perspective that failure amid the predictions of greatness. Last year, there were quite a few that put the Nationals atop the NL East and heading deep into the postseason, but they fell far short. This year, the expectations game is different. While the critics are predicting many accolades, there are just as many asking hard questions about the core of the Nationals lineup. 

After the fan euphoria of 2012, and the attendant disappointment that went into 2013, Nats fans going into Opening Day 2014 are a lot more sanguine about the franchise. They have every reason to be excited, but yet they understand what it is to be humbled by a 162-game grind that puts even the most well-trained professional athlete through a brutal ringer. That’s not to say that all fans are fatalistic ones, that they toss blades of grass into the wind to find their direction, but rather that this might be the sort of realistic season where the sine curve of fullest rabidity and fullest despair are not vacillated between in an hour. 

Let us take stock of where we stand: The Nationals carry one of the best young pitching rotations in the game. Stephen Strasburg, 27, has developed an additional pitch in Spring Training, a thoroughly filthy slider, and has finally taken to holding runners to their bags, adding to his considerable arsenal of talent. Jordan Zimmermann, 28, carried a spring ERA in 5 starts of 0.50. He allowed one run in March, walked one, and struck out fifteen. It’s safe to say he’s ready to go. Gio Gonzalez, 28, faltered a bit in Spring, but he kept his walks down in relation to his strikeouts (6:18) and traditionally Gonzalez is not a strong March performer. At the back half of the rotation are Taylor Jordan, 25, and Tanner Roark, 27, both coming into their own as strong pitchers in their sophomore seasons. I am most excited to see how these two develop while Doug Fister heads to the DL with a lat strain, and while Ross Detwiler works from the long relief slot for the Nationals.  Roark’s 7-1 debut season might have been the biggest (and best) surprise from the 2013 season, and Jordan’s four September starts demonstrated a great deal of promise.

The biggest question becomes the biggest fear: can newly-acquired Fister recover rapidly from the lat strain in time to start in May, or will his path back to Washington be a longer one? We can hope this is a minor blip on the scale for the 30 year old veteran hurler, especially after his 14-9 season with Detroit last year.

The Nationals biggest problem last year was run production. So where does their offense stand a year later? Largely unchanged. The Nationals’ only free agent signing in the off-season came in the form of bench addition Nate McLouth, and the standard array of LaRoche/Rendon/Desmond/Zimmerman and Werth/Span/Harper remains the exact same core of the order as it was last year. What’s changed? Well, Rick “Big Hoss” Schu’s promotion to hitting coach toward the end of last season did pay some late dividends, so it will be interesting to see what he can do with a full season, but the problems there aren’t nearly so simple.

Injury remains the biggest question. Harper spent half a season with knee trouble that bothered him at the plate. Ryan Zimmerman had shoulder issues that slowed his bat, and so did Danny Espinosa, who had a broken hand. It’s hard not to see the injury problem being core to the 2013 Nats’ struggles, and I suspect it’s just as big a worry for this season. The Nationals were atrociously bad scoring 2 runs or less last season, which they did in 65 games last year, winning just 8 of those tilts.  Now, you should lose the majority of the games you don’t score more than 2 runs in, but it should never be so lopsided as that. 

This may sound thoroughly obvious, yet it needs to be said: If the Nationals can’t spark their offense, this season will be no better than the last.

The Nats’ other primary off-season addition came in the form of Oakland left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins, attempting to fix the Nationals’ LOOGY problem from last year. The bullpen was fairly well atrocious in relief last year, but has a much different makeup this time out. Returning are veteran late inning hurlers Clippard, Storen and Soriano, and they are joined by long men Stammen and Detwiler, and lastly Blevins and rookie Aaron Barrett.  If you feel good about the return of Clippard and Storen, you should, though Soriano’s spring should make you worry. Last year’s free-agent response to the devastating 9th inning of Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS has fared worse and worse of late, and it should concern you that he’s your opening day closer. You should feel good about middle relievers Stammen and Detwiler. Both are former starters that have terrific stats their first time through the batting order, so when Roark or Jordan are starting, expect to see one or both in the sixth and seventh innings getting regular work. Detwiler gives the Nats a crafty lefty out of the bullpen, to go with their fastballer in Stammen. This can be used to devastating effect, so look for that to happen often. 

That doesn’t mean I’m pessimistic on the potential of this ball club — far from it — but it does mean that I don’t think they’re shoe-ins for the playoffs, the pennant or the World Series. No, this is a club that is going to have grit it out, play hard, and put everything together. In their tenth season back in the District, though, I believe this is a team that wants it more than ever, with a core of players that have seen hundred loss seasons, a 2012 run to the division title, and a 2013 collapse. This is a team who has triumphed suddenly, failed just as suddenly, and now understands that nothing can be taken for granted, no late inning comeback guaranteed, no shutout ordained, no title bestowed without the crucible of July and August, a strong June and May, the optimistic rush of April, and lastly the final death march through September and October.

This is a team that has all the pieces, helmed under new managed Matt Williams who’s fairly well the analytical opposite of his predecessor. I would expect 89-92 wins for this Nationals team, but I’ve learned not to make predictions about how these things will end up. Suffice it to say: Nationals Park is a great place to be this summer, and you’re going to see a lot of curly W’s, a lot of Bang Zoom go the Fireworks, and a lot of See. You. Later. on your television. Can they go all the way and match the expectations? Yes, if they put those same expectations out of their minds and play like zen masters. Can they? I think that Williams may find himself able to channel Phil Jackson by May 1. Let’s hope so.

Other Required Reading

Adam Kilgore on Matt Williams
Adam Kilgore on Ian Desmond
Barry Svrluga on Ryan Zimmerman
Bill Ladson on Denard Span
Dave Nichols on the Nats Top Ten Prospects (a series) 
Joe Drugan and Will Yoder on the NL East (audio) 

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We Love Arts: Exposed DC Opens Tonight! http://www.welovedc.com/2014/03/19/we-love-arts-exposed-dc-opens-tonight/ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 13:55:04 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96652

There’s no question that the District has its photogenic side, from the federal-style buildings, to the landmarks that dot the landscape, to the incredible urban environment that we all know and love. DC is a city that shows its good side more than most I’ve known, and tonight the photographic community celebrates its best at Exposed DC, a show that runs from tonight through until April 6th at Longview Gallery.

Tickets to the opening are $15 until 1pm today, so act quickly before they’re all sold out, it will be $20 at the door. There will be food and drink starting at 6pm from Bluejacket Brewery, Tel’Veh Wine Bar, Boxwood Winery, Founding Farmers and Farmers Fishers Bakers, Everlasting Life Vegan Restaurant, and Cavanagh Family Imports. There’s even an After Party at The Passenger with specials from El Buho Mezcal and Rhum Clément. The opening runs until 10pm, and the After Party starts at 8, so plan your attendance appropriately.

Many of the photos you see on We Love DC are by DC Photographers who will likely have spots on the wall at Longview, so be supportive of the amazing photographers that power the visual aesthetic of this and so many other DC websites that you know and love.

The exhibit runs until April 6th, but don’t dally and miss it.

Congratulations to Exposed DC for all their hard work, and make sure to get out to the exhibit!

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The Nationals: Just About Ready http://www.welovedc.com/2014/03/17/the-nationals-just-about-ready/ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:00:59 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96630

There’s a point during Spring Training you reach where you find yourself longing for nine good innings of baseball. It’s enough, some days, to get three or four innings of great pitching and strong hitting, but this Sunday I found myself wanting a game that mattered, something that counted for more than who would be sent to to minor league camp. The beautiful sunshine and the palm trees are a welcome distraction, but I find myself more than ready for a cool evening at Nationals Park, a hot dog with onions, and a fearsome 95mph Jordan Zimmermann fastball fanning whichever poor sap has to stand in the box.

I find myself lonesome, amid the snow, for my summer family, and more than ready for long homestands and long road trips, for weekend series in the sun, and cool nights on the Scoreboard Walk. While the team is still tuning up and finalizing their roster, I find myself ready for the fast forward into the summer and beyond. Baseball’s time for contemplation and anticipation isn’t present in the hockey and basketball seasons, where fast twitch and endurance outweighs the national pastime’s focus and civil pace. I miss that slowdown.

This purgatory of baseball, before the final tuneup games, and after the start of the spring’s excitement is almost excruciating. It appears Danny Espinosa is back and healthy, but no match for Anthony Rendon at second. Ross Detwiler appears to be the Nats’ fifth starter, ending the starter debate, and Christian Garcia looks to be the contender for the 13th pitcher slot. It looks like Tyler Moore is going to be the odd man out in the outfield, joining Zach Walters on the Infield side. Lobaton will take the backup role behind Wilson Ramos, barring injury. The team’s just about assembled, from here on out it’s about honing skills and building up capacity.

It’s hard to wait out these last few weeks, especially when the weather’s as crappy as it’s been. In the meantime, here’s some James Earl Jones reminding you why everything will be good again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Perfect Winter Forecast from Goldenbear http://www.welovedc.com/2014/03/17/perfect-winter-forecast-from-goldenbear/ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 12:12:22 +0000 http://www.welovedc.com/?p=96632 Click here to view the embedded video.

As we all dig out from last night’s snowstorm – the first all winter to hit the Boom side of Capital Weather Gang’s forecast – this forecast is pitch perfect given the bizarre nature of this winter. We’ve had 25-odd “snow events” this winter, and we’re up to second or third on total winter snowfall. While the numbers won’t be final for a bit, it looks like the greater DC area got 5-10″ after a prediction of 1-6″ or so, and so that means some heavy digging this morning.

All this after it was the 60s as late as Friday.

I feel much like Kate Woodsome does in this video, ready to the tear the script in half as I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.

Bravo to DC-based Goldenbear for perfectly nailing how completed boned this winter has been.

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