Pirates 7 Nats 4

The paid attendance tonight was somewhere around 26,000 for a Pirates/Nationals game on one of the hottest, muggiest nights of the year. I can't even imagine what a baseball game would be like if this team was coming into the game at 45-45 instead of 30-60.

That being said, it was a rather strange game tonight. I don't know if it was the 4 day layoff or the 4000% humidity, but not one Pirate pitcher could find the plate tonight. Duke looked like he had no idea where the ball was going whenever it left his hand (4 walks in 5 and 2/3rds) and none of the relievers were much better (except Capps, who walks no one ever). Still, I thought Tracy and co. did a good job managing the pitching staff tonight. Colborn came out to talk to Duke after he walked the bases loaded in the fourth, and the little change of pace seemed to help Duke get out of the inning. Tracy also managed to do something I'd been hoping he'd do for months, get the starters out of games when they can be the winners, but not the losers. He hooked Duke at exactly the right time in the fourth.

As adversely affected by the layoff the pitchers seemed to be, the hitters seemed to be rejuvenated by it. They rapped out 15 hits, with 3 by Bay, Bautista (who CRUSHED a homer) and Jack Wilson. In a nice little turn of events, when the Nats got to within 1 in the top of the 8th the offense actually responded with 2 more runs to put the game back out of reach in the bottom of the inning. The fielding play of the night might've actually been turned by Sean Casey. With Duke struggling in the 5th and a runner on first for Nick Johnson, the following conversation took place between my and my dad in the right field stands:

Dad: We need a double play.
Me: Well, it's hard to turn a double play on a line drive, Johnson's killing the ball and Duke looks like he's got nothing left.
Johnson rips a liner to Casey, who makes a nice play and turns the unassisted double play at first.
Dad: Looks like we got 'em both.

All in all it was a pretty good win tonight. It seems like the Pirates have lost games like this way to often this year, so winning one was nice. It was also nice to see our pitchers manage to strand a load of runners on base on a night when no one had their best stuff which again made it feel like the tables were turned tonight. We should try that more often.