St Louis Cardinals @ Washington Nationals (2)

Today, I went to Foggy Bottom and had dinner at CIRCA.  I had meant to go there the night before, but left it too late to get a reservation that was early enough for me to eat and then get back to my hotel to go to the game.  It was worth going for.  Since they are in the theatre district, they are used to not hanging around with service, as they know people have somewhere to be.  I got back to my hotel about 15 minutes before first pitch - the stadium is about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.


For this second game in Washington, I had a slightly cheaper ticket up on the club level - where there is an air-conditioned indoors.  I was able to come indoors for a half inning to cool down from time to time, which made the world of difference from yesterday.  I was supposed to be in the last seat in the row (K13), but seeing as there were only two other people in the row at the far end, I moved along to get a slightly better view.  Towards the end of the game, the usher suggested I just sit on the foldable chair in the wheelchair row instead of going all the way back to my seat.


Like last night, St Louis got off to a fast start with a crooked number on the scoreboard before Washington had even had a bat.  However, despite all the hits and all the scoring, this game was much quicker than yesterday's, and much closer.  Last night, the tying run came to the plate for Washington - tonight, the winning run was on base when the final out was recorded.  These losses are coming at a bad time for Washington as they are falling behind in the division and in the wild card race.

I had thought that the most dangerous non-playing thing on a baseball field was the Phillie Phanatic charging around on his ATV at break-neck speed, but I may have been wrong about that, as I've now seen the Washington Nationals' bullpen cart in action.

 It's supposed to give pitchers coming into the game a lift from their bullpen to the plate to save them the walk.  None of them use it - they all walk/jog/run run straight past it.  Regardless of this, the cart makes its way around the track and back to its gate in centre, at quite high speed - with security guards, police officers, and players having to jump out of the way.  I'm amazed he's not run anybody over yet.