09.04.06
Damn Good Ballgame
JEG and I and some others attended what is probably the best baseball game I’ve ever seen this afternoon.
Ortiz came within three outs of throwing the team’s first no-hitter since moving to Washington in a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.
Ortiz was on a personal three-game losing streak and he had given up 22 earned runs in his last 16 1/3 innings.
…
Had he pitched the no-hitter, Ortiz would have become the first pitcher in franchise history to throw a no-hitter since Dennis Martinez threw a perfect game for the Expos against the Dodgers on July 28, 1991.
As each inning passed, no member of the Nationals mentioned that Ortiz had a no-hitter. In fact, Ortiz never looked at the scoreboard to check on how he was doing.
“I never saw the scoreboard today. When I was throwing a no-hitter, I didn’t want to see it,” Ortiz said. “Everybody was quiet. Everybody was happy.”
Ortiz topped it off by hitting a solo home run against Jorge Sosa in the eighth inning to give the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
Crowd went NUTS. It was really something to see. And would have been the first no-hitter in Washington since the early ’30s.
But a strange twist to the whole thing:
The eighth inning lasted a long time as the Nationals scored an additional run on a Nick Johnson double. Ortiz said the long eighth inning did not bother his rhythm, but St. Louis shortstop Aaron Miles led off the ninth inning with a line-drive single on an 0-1 pitch. Ironically, it was Miles, then a member of Class A Quad Cities, who made the last out when Ortiz threw a no-hitter for Cedar Rapids on Aug. 7, 1997.
Again…… helluva game.
JEG said,
September 8, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Most fun I’ve ever had at a sporting event, other than watching the 2002 World Cup. Heartbreaking to watch the pitcher lose a no-no in the 9th, but it was still a career day for him.