Nlds (Giants vs. Nationals)

[weams]

Saturday night was about heroes and ghosts and everything in between. The marathon at Nationals Park included mastery and meltdowns, players warming their hands by a heater in the dugout and little-known relievers pitching their guts out. The Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants engaged in the kind of game that makes you love baseball and curse its existence and pace around the living room and ask the person next to you, what inning is it, again? They played the kind of game that makes you feel alive until it makes you sick to your stomach.

The longest — and surely most torturous — playoff game in Washington baseball history became the longest game in all of postseason history. It lasted until the last man out of the Nationals’ bullpen, usual starter Tanner Roark, yielded an upper-deck home run to Giants first baseman Brandon Belt in the top of the 18th inning. Nationals Park turned pin-drop quiet as the remainder of the Nationals’ 2-1 loss in Game 2 of the National League Division Series played out, the last gasp of an epic, perhaps the final whimper of a Nationals season suddenly in jeopardy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/playoffs/brandon-belts-homer-gives-giants-a-2-1-18-inning-win-over-nats-in-game-2-of-nlds/2014/10/05/61c320be-4bde-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html

[weams]

Displaced Bucco

Posts: 1596

Atlanta delenda est - Davey the Elder & WT Sherman

Re: National League Division Series, Game 2

? Reply #2129: Today at 01:05:22 AM ?

Oh, by the way, this fan base sucks. More than half empty stadium at the end of the game in a must win, extra inning, suspense filled postseason ballgame. Really?

[ArtVanDelay]

Some good stuff on the Nats message board. I've been enjoying a few laughs.

http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=31889.2125

[weams]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/52251/loss-in-18-puts-nats-on-cusp-of-elimination

...there was more than enough in this one game to leave Nats fans seeing red by the time this one finally ended after more than six hours of baseball. Because down two games to none, coming up short in this particular game may be how they have to remember this season.

[weams]

Optics

Posts: 5102

Re: National League Division Series, Game 2

? Reply #2139: Today at 01:29:36 AM ?

I don't know what it is, something about this city just creates losers.

Harper, #1 pick all the hype. If he went to like the Rangers or Brewers he'd be a megastar by now.

RG3, Heisman Trophy winner, awesome rookie year, now his career is basically shot in not even 3 years.

Ovie, best hockey talent in a generation, can't get past the 2nd round and has been leapfrogged by Crosby, Kane, etc.

[weams]

https://mobile.twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/518591889755602944/photo/1

[weams]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/washington-nationals-fans-leaving-park-mlb-boo

[DrungoHazewood]

Thx. Hard to say but I lean towards it being the right move to pull.

100 pitches, third/fourth time through the lineup, last batter walks after hitting a very loud foul ball, rested and effective relievers available. No reason to Grady Little the situation.

Of course Boswell, a writer raised generations ago when people still thought of relievers as washed-up starters, and a die hard Nats fan, and someone who's on the fence about analytics, is going to be absolute and definitive that Zimmerman should have been left in. When your favorite team just lost like that of course Zimmerman's place in history should have been placed above the team.

Oh, and both pitches to Cabrera were strikes. If anyone wants to talk about performing when it matters, let's talk about the guy who let two strikes go then loses his cool in the biggest game of his team's season (maybe Nats history) and gets both himself and the manager tossed.

[Fiver]

o

Hey, if an Oriole home game goes 14 innings, do they play "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" a second time in between the top and bottom halves of the inning ???

Yes. I was at the 14 inning game (might have gone 15 I can't remember) vs TB in September 2012 and they did in fact have a 14th inning stretch. Won by Manny on a walk off bloop single to LF. Desmond Jennings dove but couldn't quite come up with it.

It was the day after the famous 'don't throw it away, don't throw it all!!!!' game.

[SouthRider]

Optics

Posts: 5102

Re: National League Division Series, Game 2

? Reply #2139: Today at 01:29:36 AM ?

I don't know what it is, something about this city just creates losers.

Harper, #1 pick all the hype. If he went to like the Rangers or Brewers he'd be a megastar by now.

RG3, Heisman Trophy winner, awesome rookie year, now his career is basically shot in not even 3 years.

Ovie, best hockey talent in a generation, can't get past the 2nd round and has been leapfrogged by Crosby, Kane, etc.

This guy forgot to mention John Wall who is a nice player but no Kyrie Irving.

[Can_of_corn]

This guy forgot to mention John Wall who is a nice player but no Kyrie Irving.

At least he isn't Kwame Brown.

[DrungoHazewood]

Optics

Posts: 5102

Re: National League Division Series, Game 2

? Reply #2139: Today at 01:29:36 AM ?

I don't know what it is, something about this city just creates losers.

Harper, #1 pick all the hype. If he went to like the Rangers or Brewers he'd be a megastar by now.

RG3, Heisman Trophy winner, awesome rookie year, now his career is basically shot in not even 3 years.

Ovie, best hockey talent in a generation, can't get past the 2nd round and has been leapfrogged by Crosby, Kane, etc.

Understand the frustration, but no sympathy, you're not special. Every fanbase outside of NYC and Boston can spin their own tales of woe. There's no poison in the water in DC, there's no missing playoff magic. It's just sports. Alot of what sports is all about is how you deal with the fact that 95% of the teams eventually go home disappointed.

[Nigel Tufnel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/10/05/national-pundits-make-fun-of-the-nats-game-2-crowd/

[Palmoripken]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/wp/2014/10/05/national-pundits-make-fun-of-the-nats-game-2-crowd/

I read that. I think the mocking is fair game especially since Nats fans insisted Dc deserves a team and I was/still am in agreement with that but at the same time, don't invite yourself for mocking when your slogan is Natiude and many your fans do the exit before a playoff game ends.

[DrungoHazewood]

I read that. I think the mocking is fair game especially since Nats fans insisted Dc deserves a team and I was/still am in agreement with that but at the same time, don't invite yourself for mocking when your slogan is Natiude and many your fans do the exit before a playoff game ends.

It was kind of surprising that so many fans left, but... it was 6 1/2 hours and freakin' cold. I was at ALDS game 1 in 2012 with my 4-year-old, Sam. He had blast the first six or seven hours we were there in 48-degree rain. By 11 or he was shivering and up three hours past bedtime, and I heard the Yanks' victory on the radio somewhere around Bowie. I'm not ashamed at all, and if anyone calls me a bad fan you're an idiot.

And the Nats really do have an expansion fanbase. They had a 35-year gap. Nobody spent the 70s and 80s and 90s living and dying with the Nats because they didn't exist. Kids around DC didn't have pops take them to the game at the age of 5, not unless they went an hour up the road. It really does take generations to mature a fan base.