Nats beats Astros, 8-5

So I played hooky yesterday and saw game 3 of the 4 game series against the Astros at RFK.  It’s a 1:05pm game and was supposed to be a date for Sarah and I, but she got a couple of big deals in at work and so I went alone rather than mope around at work about getting stood up.

It was a pretty good game.  To judge it from the Nats own coverage (see "Robinson emotional following win") you’d think that it was all about the homers and the fact that it took seven stolen bases to finally have Robinson pull the catcher out of the game. 

Honestly, there were three key moments in the game which are underappreciated.  The first two were the left and center fielders both making dead-run, tip-of-glove catches that would have had game-changing consequences had they missed.  Neither one was a given.  The last was a very tense moment when Rauch was on the mound for the Nats, and got himself in a hole when the Astros loaded the bases without making a single out.  With a crowd very worried about Rauch giving away their lead, he managed to retire the next three batters with a strikeout, a pop fly, and a soft hit that he caught himself right from the mound.

It was frankly the Nats game to lose, but they held on and played some great ball, so I got to go home happy.