DC Day 4: Make-up Game at Nationals Park

Sunday night was our make-up game from the rain out on Friday night (Dad's birthday). We met the guys and Christine at The Bullpen, which is like an outdoor beer and food stand area outside the stadium. Due to the day/night doubleheader, gates didn't open until 6 for the 7:10 game.

 We entered the stadium soon after 6, and were excited to find the Racing Presidents in the plaza taking photos with fans. Score!

Here we are with Tom (Jefferson), 

and Teddy (Roosevelt) with Abe (Lincoln).

They update the line-up with giant baseball cards; similar to what they do in Boston (but I don't think Boston keeps theirs current). That's one of the giant parking structures right there and one of the Cherry Blossom trees.

 We then made our way to our seats with a pit stop at Ben's Chili Bowl to grab dinner. Adam went for the half-smoke again, while I went for the decadent chili cheese fries. They were AMAZING. Seriously. So good.

I was pretty excited about the game since due to the rain-out my guy Deduno was pitching (otherwise he would have pitched for the Sunday afternoon game and I would have missed seeing him by just one game!).

We even got to see him hit, which was pretty entertaining. He had success with a sacrifice bunt though!

Mauer played first since he caught in the earlier game.

And we were pretty excited to see a Florimon home-run! We had great seats; only one section over from the ones the day before. And since it was a make-up game, the stadium was only half full, so we didn't have to look over someones shoulder.

The scoreboard looked especially cool lit up at night!

In the 4th, the Presidents Race was highly amusing. Teddy came out with a giant lead,

only to be swatted down by a giant cicada that came out of the stands (you can see it coming for him on the scoreboard). Poor Teddy!

In the bottom of the 5th inning, it sprinkled for about thirty seconds before turning into a downpour. It happened so quickly that we barely had time to cover up and didn't even bother leaving our seats (though most people did). It was the shortest rain delay ever!

Adam was protecting his phone from the rain!

The grounds crew did a great job of getting it ready and play commenced really quickly. The rest of the night was beautiful.

The Twins made it interesting in the 8th and 9th, but just couldn't get it done. I took the opportunity to wander up the ramp to the 4th level. It was pretty much exhausting. I would hate to have seats up there - the players looked like tiny ants and the seating area had a very steep incline. Scary! I thought there would be an awesome view from the city up there. But there wasn't. I raced down to make the end of the game.

Then we took the Metro back to our hotel and crashed. What a day!