the game

 

It's been a long and very enjoyable summer of baseball. Our primary source of sports entertainment was the Keene Swamp Bats who won the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship this season. The league consists of still active college players from across the country who spent the (short) summer league living in local homes and playing about 45 games throughout a chunk of New England. We also had a chance to see the Portland Sea Dogs host the Reading Fighin' Phils while on vacation (p.s. Portland's Hadlock Field is a very nice stadium). What brought this to the fore was following the Nationals v Mets game online last night. It was one of those games you rarely see where it gets totally crazy in the late innings. The gist: First, the Mets suck. Second, the game was to be a pitching dual between the last three Cy Young holders: Max Scherzer and Jacob de Grom. Scherzer exited first, de Grom went long, but all we need to know is the Nats closed to 5-4 at the end of the eight. I figured they'll get a shot in the 9th, right? Well, the bullpen gave up five in the top of the 9th, three unearned., and staring at a 10-4 deficit was rough. In quite a turn, the Nats rallied in the bottom of the 9th for...wait on it...seven runs. It all happened like this.

I've been following the Nats very closely this year, and it all seemed lost early on; lost for a really good team (if one overlooks a struggling bullpen, which every team seems to have this year). They started 19-31 (.380 ball on pace for 100 losses) that ended with an awful four-game (losing) sweep at CitiField in New York. Since then they've gone a MLB-best 59-28 (.678) and have both a MVP leader in Anthony Rendon (.338/32/112/1.054) and an outside shot at a Cy Young with Stephen Strasburg. They won't catch the Braves for the division, but they have just about locked up the #1 wild card slot. Granted, a one-game wild card playoff won't be my favorite, but it's what you get.