Blog post

April 28, 2016 [LINK / comment]

Phillies sweep the Nationals

After winning eight straight home games this month, the Washington Nationals fell flat against the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, losing all three games in the series. Unlike the Tuesday game, both the Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon games featured superb outings by the starting pitchers. Yesterday Gio Gonzalez allowed only one earned run over six-plus innings, and today Tanner Roark only allowed two hits in seven full innings. In today's game, the Phillies scored all three of their runs in the ninth inning immediately after Bryce Harper struck out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning, while Daniel Murphy crushed two balls to deep right field that would have been home runs were it not for the chilly, wet weather. Instead, they were just long outs, so his batting average has now dropped below the .400 mark. The final score of both games was 3-0. So much for home field advantage...

This marks the first time since last August that the Nats have been shut out in two consecutive games, and the first time that has happened at home since 2007, back when they played in RFK Stadium. Here is the complete list:

And on that disappointing note, the Nationals embark on a brutal ten-day road trip, facing (in order) the St. Louis Cardinals, the Kansas City Royals, and the Chicago Cubs. Meanwhile, the New York Mets have won nine of their last ten games and are now only a half game behind the Nats in the NL East race.

Speaking of the Cubs, I would be remiss not to mention their lopsided 16-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds one week ago, April 21. Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter, backed by five Chicago home runs, including two from Kris Bryant. Somebody up in heaven got a big smile from that one... The Cubs are now 16-5, which is the best record in all of baseball. The second-best team right now is on the other side of Chicago -- yes, the White Sox, who are 16-7! Hmmm....

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium tweak

I made a few minor enhancement to the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium diagrams, with the "ribbed" section dividers in the roof now displayed, and more detail in the bullpens. Perhaps it's not even worth considering an update.

This was motivated in part by my ongoing (agonizingly prolonged) work on updating the Angel (Anaheim) Stadium diagrams, as that one likewise features prominent "ribs" between each section on top of the roof. Other such stadiums:

• Progressive Field (Cleveland)
• Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
• Veterans Stadium (Philadelphia)
• Exhibition Stadium -- left field (Toronto)
• Hiram Bithorn Stadium (Puerto Rico)