The Washington Nationals opted to charge their fans (and discerning fans of their opponents) once for one short game this afternoon and charge them again later for another short game this evening.
Bah, Natbug! Here at Faith and Fear, we give you a regular-sized blog post for each discrete game of the Saturday day-night doubleheader, especially since we’re in an outstanding mood following the result of the afternoon game. Admission will be complimentary, per usual.
There were only seven innings to the 5-1 Mets win over the Nationals [1], but much pleasure was packed into those seven innings. Francisco Lindor [2] did the most packing, packing a pair of wallops: a two-run homer in the first of seven innings and a two-run homer in the fifth of seven innings; it can’t be stressed enough that the game lasted only seven innings…by design. Anyway, in between homering, Lindor drove in another run via a single. Say, that’s all five runs off the bat of the most accomplished shortstop in the National League East. Somebody should make sure the Nats’ social media team is made aware [3].
Francisco, however, wasn’t alone in his pleasure-packing. David Peterson [4] scored two of the runs Francisco drove in, once after being nicked with a pitch and once after delivering a ringing double. Don’t ya love that doubles and triples ring? The bell sounded sweet to a pitcher who hadn’t gotten a major league hit before. David smiled quite a bit when asked about his hitting in the postgame interrogation room, perhaps the only time in recorded history that Peterson has smiled when asked about the game in which he just competed. That’s probably because he’s a dead-serious pitcher, but for the first time, as he noted, he feels “like a full baseball player”.
He was a pretty comprehensive pitcher as well, nullifying whatever thoughts the Nationals had of more than nicking him. David came within one out of qualifying for a win. Seven-inning game, five innings required for a W. You do the math. MLB hasn’t. Then again, seven-inning affairs are a scam, a pitcher’s win as a reflection of a pitcher’s effectiveness is flawed and the Mets as a unit were victorious. Never mind the math. Do the emotion.
Luis Rojas was careful with Peterson, given that by the time there were two out in the home fifth the kid had thrown 94 pitches and had rounded the bases twice. In came, over the next two-and-a-third, Aaron Loup, Miguel Castro, Seth Lugo and Trevor May. The Mets carry 43 relievers, what the hell, have a parade. The win was officially the work of Loup (0.1 IP), who let in the only National run, even though it wasn’t charged to him because it was inherited.
Somewhere there’s a caller to a talk radio show, or perhaps a petulant child (same basic thing), insisting Aaron Loup is a real winner, he got the win and maybe the Mets oughta trade Peterson because he had a 5-0 lead and couldn’t even get the win.
Argue away, strawman figures I’ve just concocted for my day-night interregnum amusement. We got a win. Maybe we’ll get another later. Another blog post, too, I imagine.
No charge.