At 7:06 PM on April 14, 2005, for the first time in thirty-three years, six months, thirteen days, and just a shade over nineteen hours, a big-league baseball game was being played in Washington DC. Washington had been without a team since the second edition of the Senators abandoned the nation’s capital for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and become the Texas Rangers. The first edition of the Washington Senators left the nation’s capital in 1960 to become the Minnesota Twins. No city had ever been given a third chance at being home to a major league team in modern baseball history. Yet here it was, RFK Stadium was again full of baseball fans and many Washington celebrities including Tim Russert of NBC News’ Meet the Press and John McCain, Senior Senator from the State of Arizona were on hand to celebrate.
Yes, on this 62° mid-April evening, major league baseball was back. The Washington Nationals, the team that had been known to the baseball world for the past thirty-six seasons as the Montréal Expos, opened their brand-new season in a brand-new city before a packed house. Now, it was time to get to the matter at hand. That being, the contest between the Nationals with Liván Hernández pitching against the Arizona Diamondbacks and mound opponent, Javier Vázquez.
Craig Counsell came to the plate to open the first inning for Arizona. Four pitches later, Liván Hernández had struck out Counsell. Royce Clayton followed by smacking the first pitch he saw toward right field for a sure base hit, but José Vidro snared the ball diving from his position at second base for the second out. After Luis Gonzalez drew a base on balls, Troy Glaus struck out swinging to end the Diamondbacks’ half of the first.
When Washington came to bat, Brad Wilkerson sent a fly ball deep to right field that Shawn Green caught for the first out. Nick Johnson came up next and singled sharply to left field for the first hit in team history. José Vidro then followed with a walk, but the Nationals first inning in their new home came to an end when José Guillén hit into a double play to quash any hopes for a Nats’ rally.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when José Vidro lasered a double past first base and into the right field corner to open the inning. José Guillén was then hit by a pitch from Javier Vázquez and the Nats had runners on first and second with nobody out. Ryan Church made the fourth inning’s first out by popping up to shortstop Royce Clayton in short center field. But Vinny Castilla followed with a triple down the right field line that scored both Vidro and Guillén giving Washington a 2-0 lead. Brian Schneider followed by bringing Castilla home with the third Washington run on a sacrifice fly before Cristian Guzmán struck out to end the inning. After four innings the score was now Washington 3, Arizona, 0.
Neither team had a batter reach base in the fifth inning and Hernández set the Snakes down in order in the sixth. But in the bottom half of the inning, Vinny Castilla homered into the Nationals’ left field bullpen after a Ryan Church single to grow Washington’s lead to 5-0.
In the meantime, Liván Hernández had given up just two hits through six innings, albeit with five walks, but that was still plenty to keep Arizona scoreless. Moving to the top of the seventh inning, Chad Tracy hit a fly ball out to Brad Wilkerson in left field. Chris Snyder followed with a strikeout after he swung at a slow, slow 2-2 curveball. Quinton McCracken made the final out with a fly ball out to right fielder José Guillén.
The Nationals went down quickly in the bottom half of the seventh inning as three straight ground outs were interrupted only by a José Vidro base on balls. Hernández came back strong again in the top of the eighth as he set Arizona down in order on popups by Álex Cintrón and Craig Counsell before getting Royce Clayton to look at a 1-2 change-up that just nicked the outside corner for strike three.
In Washington’s half of the eighth inning, Ryan Church led off with a single and Vinny Castilla, who needed but a single for the cycle, was instead hit by a Lance Cormier fastball. But any hope for more offense in the bottom of the eighth was dashed as Brian Schneider grounded into a double-play and Cristian Guzmán hit a fly ball caught by right fielder Shawn Green to end any hopes of a potential rally.
Hernández walked Luis Gonzalez to start off the ninth inning for Arizona. Troy Glaus then hit a fly ball to deep center field that Ryan Church caught on the warning track. Shawn Green was next and his base hit to right field put men on first and second with one man out. Chad Tracy then stepped to the plate and delivered a three-run homer into the right field stands. The sellout crowd was suddenly incredibly quiet.
With the score now 5-3, Nats’ manager Frank Robinson replaced Hernández with Chad Cordero. Chris Snyder made Arizona’s second out on a grounder to shortstop Cristian Guzmán before Quinton McCracken singled. Arizona’s hopes of completing their comeback ended there however as Tony Clark made the last out of the game by flying out to Ryan Church in center field.
Liván Hernández had been stellar in yielding just three runs on four hits in 8⅓ innings for his first victory of the year. Chad Cordero had been on point when Hernández needed help and picked up his second save of the young season. What was a dream was now real, baseball fans in the national capital area rejoiced as Les Expos had transformed themselves into baseball’s newest team, the Washington Nationals.
Note: I am delighted to see baseball again. I mean the completely, deliriously kind of delighted.