The 2018 Washington Nationals season ended with some big questions, such as what happened and where will Bryce Harper be next season?  It also brought the re-balancing of an eight-year trend in my game attendance.

Starting in 2011, when I really began going to a lot of games, the Nats ran off three consecutive .500 records with me at the stadium.  The next three seasons each brought records one game under .500.  In 2017, I thought that trend was over, as the Nats bulldozed there way to a stellar 15-10 record in my presence.

But no.  The demons were not exorcised, they were instead displeased, and in 2018 they insisted on retribution in the form of a 10-12 season.

Now, I invite you to add up the wins and add up the losses and see where we’re at.  Take a minute if you need to.  I know from triple-checking these figures that in today’s times mental math is not as reliable as it once was.  Finished?  Great.  We’re back to .500!  I don’t know what that means for 2019, but keep it in mind.

One clear trend is that next season I should only attend games started by Max Scherzer.  Yes, he’s amazing and probably everyone should go see him pitch all the time, but there’s a statistical reason for that advice to apply to me.  Of the 10 wins I witnessed this season, Scherzer accounted for six of them.  Oh and those were the only games I saw him start.

The rest of the group was … not good.  Honestly I was a bit shocked when I tallied this all up.  I knew the Nats overall were disappointing and I was aware they lost the majority of games I witnessed this year, but I didn’t realize how lopsided this chart would be.

There’s a related weird pitching-related mental thing we confronted this year as well.  We were talking about how it always seemed like we saw Roark or whoever was filling the No. 5 starter role at a given time.  Strangely though, while partially true about Roark, our overall thesis was not correct.

I made a new section of the spreadsheet that automatically tallies up the total number of starts we’ve seen from each pitcher.  Here’s the list dating back to my first-ever Nats game (with a few huh? names):

Organization note: I keep the pitchers currently on the roster at the top since their numbers are due to increase.  I’m sorry to have had to demote Gio Gonzalez out of that group into the Jordan Zimmermann Hall of Fame.

A very unscientific column in the spreadsheet keeps track of what jersey or shirt I wore to each game.  My Anthony Rendon jersey went 5-2, Bryce Harper’s went 2-3, Ryan Zimmerman’s was 1-3, and the blue Nike Nats shirt that is necessary in the summer went 2-4.

But enough dwelling on any negatives!  Baseball is fun and despite a 10-12 record I had a great time at the park this year.  Probably the highlight at Nationals Park was the July 5 game in which the Nats trailed 9-0 in the top of the fourth inning.

Trea Turner got the comeback started with a home run in the bottom half of the inning, and added a grand slam in the sixth to put the Nats up 10-9.  They won 14-12!  It was awesome!

A month later, the Nats added a new, exciting piece to their franchise in the form of a little-used, but much-appreciated bullpen cart:

I also started checking some more parks off my goal of visiting every team’s stadium.  Prior to this season my list included Nats Park and Camden Yards.  That was it.  But I made a somewhat impulsive decision to fly to Cincinnati for Opening Day.  Everyone was super nice and I had a great time seeing my team win.

My last game of the season didn’t involve the Nats, but did let me see the gorgeous AT&T Park in San Francisco.

Here’s to some more wins and more parks next year.