I’ve been to 164 games at Nationals Park.  Some of the first 163 were crazy in all sorts of ways that sports are crazy.  None were anything like last night.

The stadium had the right buzz for the deciding fifth game of a playoff series.  The Nats had a not-crazy-to-believe-in starter in Gio Gonzalez and a lineup that had showed some sudden signs of life.

And because I’m a nerd, I can tell you the Bryce Harper jersey I was wearing had a 5-1 record in games I attended this year, including a win in Game 2 of the series that featured amazing clutch homers by Harper and Ryan Zimmerman in the 8th inning to give the Nats life.

We new going into the game that ace pitcher Max Scherzer was available to come out of the bullpen.  With his usual borderline crazy person intense nature on the mound, this was a pretty thrilling prospect.  It brought thoughts of the 2012 playoffs when Jordan Zimmermann came on in relief, threw 12 pitches, nine of them strikes, and struck out all three batters he faced as the stadium went absolutely bonkers.

Scherzer’s inning started with promise but quickly devolved into absolute nuttiness:

In the stands at least it sure looked like that hit by pitch also happened to a batter who swung.  So basically, it was a nightmare of tension and hope and heartache.  Just look at the scores at the end of each inning:

1-0 Chicago
4-1 Washington
4-3 Washington
4-3 Washington
7-4 Chicago
8-6 Chicago
9-7 Chicago
9-8 Chicago
9-8 Chicago

Obviously a loss in the first round of the playoffs is not the ideal way for the Nats season to end, but like I usually go back to with a disappointing Washington sports finish, this team brought me immensely more joy than despair.

I attended 25 games between the regular season and playoffs.  And by record alone, it was by far the most successful Nats performance:

Stephen Strasburg was the most successful starter in our games, and perhaps Game 5 would have been less of a shock had I taken Gio’s record into account:

We saw four walk-off wins, two each authored by Harper and Daniel Murphy.  And in three separate games we saw renaissance man Ryan Zimmerman hit two home runs.  We ate an unknown number of hot dogs (my data has some limitations).

Overall we had a blast at Nats Park and in a few short/long months we’ll be right back in section 205 ready to do it all again.