Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg Come to Town

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg have come to Fenway Park this weekend to face the Red Sox, who are mired in last place again.  How do I know?  Tickets that have been going for under face value on Stubhub have now jumped to astronomical levels.  I'm told that the Red Sox are going to break the sell out streak, but when a thousand tickets are dumped on to Ace Tickets, is that really a sell out streak?  Regardless, 50 bucks to sit in the bleachers?  No thanks.  I'd rather watch from the really cheap seats - my couch.  But here are some in game highlights from Friday night.

1.  Second Inning.  Mike Aviles rockets a double scoring Ryan Sweeney and David Ortiz.  We take a 2-0 lead.  Unfortunately, we are unable to capitalize on that momentum.  And Aviles walks to dugout saddened as he flips his helmet off.

2.  Third Inning.  After a double by Harper putting runners on second and third, Ryan Zimmerman - he of the lonely signed chair at the old ESPNZone outlet in Washington D.C. - singles in a run to make it 2-1.  Another double by the Nationals makes in 3-2.  Uh-oh.  Felix Doubrant looks tired out there.  While Strasburg has struck out 5 in three innings.  His breaking stuff is particularly nasty.

3.  Fourth Inning.  With one runner on, Bryce Harper smashes a Doubrant pitch into Centerfield, landing 5 feet away from the Jordan's sign.  Insurance executive everywhere were shuddering when that pitch started toward the sign.  Then they realized that it was  nationals player, so they went back to their booze and cocaine.  You gotta love insurance executives.

4.  Sixth Inning.  Kevin Youkilis, normally a very mild mannered person, takes umbrage at a called third strike.  He starts yelling and pointing to state his case.  unfortunately for him, the home plat umpire wasn't having any of that and sent him on his way to the showers.  When can we finally get rid of this guy?   Meanwhile Harper drives in another run with a single to right that now makes it 3 hits, 7 total bases and 3 RBIs.

5.  Seventh Inning.  Strasburg is finally relieved after throwing 119 pitches and recording 13 strikeouts.  He is well on his way toward his seventh win.

6.  Eighth Inning.  In true Manny Ramirez style, Adrian Gonzalez hits a home run (his fifth) to make the score 7-3.  Only slightly less out of reach!  Way to go A-Gone.

The take away from this game is that the Nationals are for real.  While the Phillies are struggling, the Nationals are in first place - featuring two of the most exciting young stars int he game.  While it's too late to start rooting for them now, I will definitely keep watching.  Too bad, this couldn't happen for the Montreal Expos.