Best Honeymoon Ever! (Part 4)

Best Honeymoon Ever, Game 8: Pittsburgh Pirates at Washington Nationals

Game Review:

You may have heard about this game. Coming into the game, I was certain this would be the best pitching match up of our trip, with Max Scherzer against Francisco Liriano on the mound. Through 5, the two of them traded blows back and forth, the only blemish for Liriano being a HUGE home run by Bryce Harper to right center.

In the second inning, I turned to the guy next to me and told him that Scherzer was on a different level that day. His movement was ridiculous, and he was so calm on the mound that you could just tell that he was in complete control. As the game went along, people around us started to notice that something was going on, and by the 7th inning, it was a constant roar on every pitch.

The debate about what transpired in the 9th inning has raged over message boards and talking heads, but what I can tell you is that Scherzer was pressing HARD with Jose Tabata at the plate. For the first time, he was over-throwing, straightening out of his fastball and causing him to lose his touch on his slider. Tabata fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch, getting the at bat to the 8th pitch before a Scherzer slider broke hard inside and clipped Tabata.

After that pitch, Scherzer seemed to calm down and focus and made quick work of Josh Harrison, getting him to fly out on an 0-2 count to get the no-hitter.

For fun numbers, getting to witness a perfect game would have put me among 23 other audiences. To see a perfect game lost with 2 outs in the 9th inning, yet a no-hitter remain puts me among 13 other audiences. To have the only blemish on the no-hitter be a HBP with 2 outs in the 9th is a first in baseball history, something pretty amazing to be part of. The first picture is the final pitch of the game, and the second is the celebration of the no-hitter on the field:

Stadium Review:

The day was a poor day for Washington to have me review their stadium. The day was VERY hot, and we had already done a Capitol Building tour that morning, so I was tired and hot already.

Their food was quite good, though on a warm day, I wasn’t going to try the suggested specialty of the ballpark, a chili dog and chili fries. Instead, I had a chicken parmesan sandwich, which may have been the best sandwich I had at a park on the trip.

The ballpark is fairly average across the board. I did think they could have done more to incorporate the Washington sky line into the sight line of the stadium, but it’s got good sight lines to the plate from most anywhere in the stadium.